Snow Queen: A Journey in Seven Stories
by thermopylae
Summary: Ten years after Luffy becomes the Pirate King, Vivi must embark on a journey to save an old friend. Chapter 12 up: We finally learn what Zoro has been doing. Vivi appears at Drum Castle.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: I emphatically do not own "One Piece."

**notes:** I was reading Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" the other day, and this idea sprang up suddenly. The prologue below does not follow "The Snow Queen," but as it is necessary, please bear with it! And please let me know if it is too mawkish/heavily written. I don't often use this style and I almost never write character deaths, so CC would be appreciated.

"Snow Queen: A Journey in Seven Stories"  
**Prologue**

In this way and that, ten years passed.

**One:** Luffy found himself once again facing Crocodile, who had gone quite mad. For any of the strange coincidences that seemed to gravitate toward the rubber boy, everyone was there: Ace and Shanks and Smoker and of course his own crew. When it was over, Crocodile was dead and Luffy was only just alive. Ace caught him as he fell, a rueful smile on his freckled face, and said dryly, All hail the Pirate King. Because Ace said it, the name stuck. Soon the entire world was calling Luffy the Pirate King, and then it was not such a surprise when they really began to believe he was a sort of king, and wanted him to do some kinging. They wanted a guild, and a formal legal code, and recognition from the World Government, and they wanted Luffy to be in charge of all that.

Luffy ran away instead, the rest of the Straw Hat crew hot on his heels. They had found the One Piece, and Luffy was the Pirate King (though, as he said with some alarm, the _wrong sort_ of Pirate King), but All Blue was still waiting. And if they had not found All Blue, that meant Nami had not yet seen all the world to make her map. Besides, Chopper had not formed a theory for his medical research yet, and Robin still had some ideas about the Lost History she wanted to prove, and Zoro had not had his duel with Mihawk. The only person who could claim to have reached his goal was Usopp, as "Brave Warrior of the Sea" was a dream vaguely defined.

For a very lovely and brief while, it was just like old times, until after they'd found All Blue, and Nami had seen all the world there was to see, and Chopper had had a brainstorm, and Usopp had learned to face death with a calm heart, and they'd looked up one day to see Mihawk, his cold eyes searching for just one of them.

Go, Zoro said, and Luffy obeyed. They'd both known from the beginning that this was something Zoro had to do alone and completely alone. They all kept their eyes upon the green-haired figure as they sailed away. The last they saw of Zoro before he and Mihawk slipped over the horizon out of sight, their swordsman was tying his bandana around his head.

We'll see him back at Water Seven, said Luffy.

If he doesn't get lost, you mean, replied Sanji wryly, and they all laughed. Somehow, they knew that Zoro would not lose his way. Much, anyway. It might take a few weeks, but sooner rather than later they would see him swagger through the doors, that infuriating smirk upon his face. And then they would have a party and get falling down drunk.

The third day after the Straw Hats arrived back at Luffy's offices (imposed on him amid great protest), a messenger from the Marines arrived with news of Zoro. After it was over, the messenger said, Mihawk was dead and so was Roronoa Zoro.

As one, they all said flatly, You're lying.

Captain Smoker's fleet found the body, said the messenger fearfully, and they checked it. Everyone checked it, to make sure. Then Captain Smoker ordered a burial at sea, and said to give you this. He held out the familiar black bandana.

Luffy took it silently. Then he went to his room and shut the door and would speak to no one for days. The Straw Hats left him alone. When outsiders - not Shanks and not Ace, but just about everybody else in the world - came to offer their condolences, they turned them away, sometimes forcibly. Their own grief seemed like dull aches, a throbbing in the bones that could still be ignored in favor of protecting their boy-captain. At night, when they thought Luffy must be sleeping, they wept.

When he came out again, the change was not obvious. Luffy still laughed and made pranks, but his eyes were slightly dazed, as if his soul was somewhere very far away. He was not in denial. When Usopp asked him, hesitantly, Luffy replied, I miss him. Luffy had no fear of death, and Zoro had had no great attachment to life. Zoro's death was no great thing. It was the reality of Zoro's absence, the lack of Zoro where Luffy thought there would always be Zoro, that undid him.

So sometimes Luffy cried, and when that happened Nami stayed with him. She held his hand and kissed his brow and stroked the damp black hair from his face. Nami cried too, and this seemed to comfort Luffy, because he knew they grieved for the same thing: when it was all over, it had seemed right that there would be the three of them, together and always together; only now one of them was gone, and he had been the one Luffy loved best.

**Two:** The year turned while they were still grieving. Luffy was astonished to find that not only the calendar, but everything and everyone that lived had a way of moving forward. In a way it was good to enter back into the swirl and hubbub of life. Someone - or several someones - had drawn up a formal code of pirate conduct which was awaiting Luffy's signature and enforcement. He was not sure he wanted to sign it, because he was not sure he wanted to follow all its rules. But it could be ignored for now, until Nami started bugging him about it. More important were his friends, especially Sanji, who handled most of Luffy's immediate, food-related concerns.

In the evenings they talked. That was the second astonishing thing. They'd fulfilled their life dreams, yet it felt like like was just beginning. Now they wanted to do more, and found that their dreams were no longer dreams but possibilities, and that everything now lay in themselves to make those possibilities into reality. Sanji talked of expanding the Baratie, of entering the spice trade business. Nami pointed out the nagivation lines on her half-finished world map, her eyes bright as she imagined the whole world connected by ship and seatrain. Usopp had sketches for fantastical new inventions using dials, and the way his eyes wandered to the Galley La shipyard, visible from the window, it was clear he was thinking _Maybe, maybe, I really will have 80 thousand men one day_. And so one by one they bid Luffy affectionate farewells, and this time he let them go. Nami stayed the longest, because Nami could be good like that. She stayed for six long years, and during that time Luffy grew into manhood while Nami grew into womanhood, and Luffy learned about the burdens of kingship.

**Five:** Nami and Luffy did not pass their years at Water Seven alone, because Luffy was not the kind of person who stood for being alone. Iceburg and the Galley-La were there, of course, as were Frankie and his Family. Any of them were good for a day of playing hooky or making Nami turn red with fury. Too, sometimes Usopp's boat sailed in, or Robin's, or Sanji's, or Chopper's, or the royal ships of Alabasta carrying Vivi, and those were the best times of all. At first they talked of Zoro in hushed voices, but as the months and years went by they found it easier to say his name and tell his stories. Sometimes they even forgot themselves, and called out Remember when Zoro... right in the middle of a party, and everyone would break into uproarious laughter as if the swordsman were in the room with them.

Luffy spent more and more time away from his offices. In a way he was glad, because he hated sitting still. But often he got on a ship only to head not for adventure, but for a meeting with some boring head of state or a conference. If Nami accompanied him on these trips, that was all right, but sometimes Nami had meetings of her own to attend and people to utterly manipulate to her own ends. But often he saw Smoker or Shanks or Ace (or very occasionally, all three) at these meetings, so his trips were never completely wasted.

More than sometimes, when Luffy got back from a meeting or sneaking off from a meeting to have adventures, he would find a boat bearing Baratie's insigna docked in the harbor, and he would burst through the doors of the house he shared with Nami to smell the fragrance of smoke and hear Sanji fixing something delicious in the kitchen. Then Sanji himself poked his head out and said things to make Luffy laugh. They were often the kinds of things he used to say back on the Going Merry - I love Nami even when her eyes are red from exhaustion! and Goddess of the Sea, how you refresh my weary soul! But more and more often, he said I found that brand of ink you like, or God it's been a hell of a week. Who knew training new wait staff was so hard? Nami laughed and took his hand, and they went together to sit on the veranda.

Luffy noticed, distractedly, that sometimes Nami let Sanji kiss her during these visits and sometimes she did not. Sometimes Sanji asked her to go back with him, and always she said No, you haven't said the right thing yet. Luffy wondered when all this change had taken place.

**Seven:** Zeff died in the spring. An infection from his artificial leg had taken root and would not go. Sanji had not sent for Chopper; Zeff had asked him not to. You stopped beating yourself up over me and found All Blue, you little eggplant, Zeff had said. So I have no regrets about this life. Now I'm going to go and see this All Blue for myself and leave you with the dirty dishes and the shit waiters. Got the last laugh, eh?

Luffy and Nami were asked to the funeral. Luffy was persuaded into all-black attire, but he insisted on wearing his hat. Zeff would have wanted him to, he said. The smile that Sanji threw his way as he and Nami stepped onto the deck of the Baratie proved him right. Nami's black silk was expensive, but the coat she wore over it was old, a gift from a 147-year-old doctorine. Sanji broke away from the crowd and came over to them. He took Nami in his arms and gathered her close with a long shuddering sigh. Nami stroked the blonde hair and smoothed his tense shoulders. I love you, Nami, Sanji said very quietly, and her voice was tender as she replied, I love you too, sweetheart.

Luffy knew he should have felt sad then, since this meant Sanji had finally said the right thing and Nami was now going to leave Luffy. But instead he just felt glad to see life growing in a place where everyone was dressed for death. It made him feel better about Zoro too, and wonder at the way he could miss someone without feeling incomplete, at how even the loss of _that person_ had not undone the greater part of his soul.

As Luffy thought, Nami left him soon after that, though she never quite settled at the Baratie. Luffy returned to Water Seven and the by-now familiar routine of visiting and being visited. He grew used to life lived alone but not alone, to having the people dearest to him flung far away and seen only occasionally.

So, in this way and that, ten years passed. And then something Happened.

Vivi, Princess of Alabasta, sat at her office desk and chewed her lip in worry. There was something she had not told Luffy, something she'd been keeping secret for the past six years, something which owing to a series of mysterious and alarming events she would now have to tell the Pirate King:

Zoro was alive.

---------to be continuednotes: Oh my god I hate writing without dialogue. But there had to be no real dialogue and no real action or else this would have turned into a fic on its own. I assure you, the rest will not read like a monstrous flashback. And no, Usopp, Chopper, and Robin will not be left in the lurch. pets


	2. First Story: The Mirror and the Queen

**notes:** On names. I've seen these names spelled a million different ways, but the "7th Log" spells them Coza, Pelu, Chaka, and Igaram, as well as Nefaltari Vivi and Cobra, so that's what I'll use from now on. Personally, I think Coza definitely looks like a "Kohza" kind of guy, but who am I to argue with Jump Comics?

"The First Story: The Mirror and the Queen"

It snowed that winter in Alabasta. Vivi had never seen anything quite like it. Snow did fall sometimes in her summer desert country, but she was used to seeing it come in flurries, sprinkling itself over the sand dunes like powder suger. Though Vivi was no stranger to the thick blizzards that blanketed winter and autumn islands, she could not quite accept the combination of desert _and_ blizzard. It made Alabasta seem unnatural and strange to her.

It might have been all right, Vivi thought as her steps slowed and stopped before one of the palace's tall windows, if it was just one day. But it had been snowing for a week now, and showed no signs of letting up. The people in Alubarna had adjusted quickly to the strange conditions - after all, on an island where a change in weather could mean life or death, one learned to be adaptable - and were now going about their business as if blizzards came to Alabasta every year. Children made hasty sleds out of old boards and schoolbags, delighted to have a "real winter" at last.

Only Vivi seemed to feel uneasy about the unexpected snowy wonderland. She didn't like to see the desert hidden like this. She didn't like to look outside her window and not recognize her country. It didn't belong here, the snow, and the particular oppressive hush that always accompanies heavy snow. Vivi just wanted it all to melt.

As if he could sense her thoughts, Vivi saw his shadow fall over the sill as he stole up behind her. She turned around with a smile. "Zoro."

"It's been snowing for a long time." His eyes were on the flakes falling in clumps outside.

"Yes." Vivi let out a pensive sigh. "I wonder when it'll stop."

"It reminds me of Drum," said Zoro quietly. His voice was always quiet now. He was never particularly angry, or particularly happy. Zoro did not growl or snap, but he also rarely smiled, and he never laughed. He was simply...quiet.

"The snow looked better there," Vivi agreed. She cast an anxious look up at Zoro. She did hate these times, when Zoro talked of the past. "Perhaps Dalton sent us the snow as an early Christmas gift? I shall have to write a card." She laughed nervously at her own joke.

Zoro frowned. "I started to carry Dalton up the mountain," he said slowly, "because he was badly hurt." He looked down at himself. "I couldn't do that now," he said, and smiled the rare ghost smile that always broke Vivi's heart.

It was true enough, though. Zoro couldn't lift even Vivi's slight weight up a mountain now, let alone the huge king of Sakura Kingdom. He had done little more than walk the palace and its grounds for years. There was no more training, no more swimming in frozen oceans. There was no more muscle, no more fighter's alertness about him. It had all gone to flab and soft rolls of flesh. Zoro was still a big man and a handsome man, an observant man who moved silently as a wolf when he wished. But the one white sword that hung at his side had not been drawn in six years: he was no longer a swordsman.

Vivi said simply, "It was kind of you."

"But the villagers told us to wait while they prepared a lift. It seemed like we waited forever, but the ride was much quicker than if we'd walked."

"And at the top of the mountain," Vivi said before she could stop herself, "we met -"

"Kureha," said Zoro. "A fine doctor who tended to Dalton's wounds. And then we took the lift down -"

Vivi sighed. She really did hate these times. "No, Zoro," she said, trying to keep the impatience from her voice. "We took the sleigh down. All of us. And you know who was pulling the sleigh."

A line set along Zoro's brow, then smoothed. "We took the lift down," he repeated, "and then we sailed for Alabasta."

"And what did we do in Alabasta?" asked Vivi, more sharply than she'd intended. If only the snow would melt! Then the air would turn warm again, and the desert show itself, and they could stop talking like this. "Tell me, Zoro, who delivered my country from Crocodile? You fought Mr. 1, and then you helped me to the clock, so tell me: who was fighting Crocodile?" She covered her mouth with a hand as she realized she was almost shouting by the end.

Zoro stared at her calmly - no, it wasn't calm, Vivi thought meanly. Calmness required discipline, a dismissal of anger. Zoro didn't have anger anymore, he didn't have anything that made him a real person anymore. He was staring at her like that because he was _incapable_ of feeling - _stop it, stop it,_ Vivi told herself. _He has suffered, and you're being unkind._ "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to snap, Zoro. You must forgive me."

To add guilt to her shame, Zoro raised a hand and brushed his fingers against her cheek. Vivi sighed, willing her anger to leave her like water evaporating from the desert. It was always like this with Zoro now; every minute different, from frustration to protectiveness to anger to tenderness. It was as if Vivi had to experience emotion twice as strongly for the both of them. Just now, she was fighting the temptation to relax her weight against his hand, to rest and be supported for a change.

Instead she pulled away, and was grateful when footsteps sounded in the hall, drawing closer.

"There you are." Coza reached them and put a hand on Vivi's shoulder. He never liked Zoro to be near her for too long. "I thought I heard shouting. What have you been doing?"

Vivi smiled up at the golden-haired man and put her own hand over his. "Just watching the snow," she said lightly, "and talking of old times." Zoro said nothing.

"It is pretty," Coza said thoughtfully. "But it doesn't really seem like Alabasta, does it?"

"That's what I was saying to Zoro," replied Vivi warmly. That was the good thing about Coza. He always did understand. About some things, anyway.

"Vivi, your father wants to see you in his study," Coza said after a minute. "He sent me to tell you." He laughed. "Some time ago, actually. This palace is too damn big."

Vivi smiled again. Coza had been at the palace for two years now, but he was still the small-town boy through and through. Or maybe he did it purposely. This was the man who had stirred half the nation to rebellion, once upon a time. Vivi thought if he really wanted to feel at home in Alubarna, the palace walls and streets would rearrange themselves under the force of his charisma. As it happened, Coza didn't want to make Alubarna his own, not yet. Well, that was too bad, Vivi thought. He was going to have to get used to it, just like she was still getting used to him being here.

"I'll be there in a minute," Vivi said. She hesitated. "Darling - you're free today, aren't you? Perhaps...perhaps you and Zoro could go for a walk in the city? It's Market Day. I'm sure he'd like to see that."

Coza looked at Zoro, who was looking at Vivi, who was avoiding both their gazes. "Sure," he said finally. "That sounds like a fine idea. Zoro?"

The other man shrugged - _all the same to me_ - and started walking down the hall.

Coza kissed Vivi's cheek. "I'll look after him," he murmured. "You take it easy. Don't let him get you worked up like this."

Vivi nodded. "Make sure he wears a coat." Then she turned away.

Coza grunted and followed after Zoro.  


The market was busy, even in the snow. White flakes covered the streets almost faster than people could shovel, but they kept at it gamely, determined to not let anything ruin their Market Day. Vendors called out the names of items sold specially for this day, while the usual fruit, meat, vegetable, and houseware sellers all jostled each other for customers and space. In between stalls, children ran about, throwing snowballs and making snowmen, sliding down on shoveled piles of snow higher than their heads.

Many people, old and young, called out greetings to Coza, which he returned courteously. Some glanced with passing curiousity at the large man walking beside him. _Ah, so that's him_, they were thinking. _The stray dog who washed up at Nanohana all those years ago. Princess Vivi took him in, didn't she, as a special favor._ They all shook their heads in wonder at the genorosity of their princess, then went back to their business. They did not recognize the fleshy, softly sagging man as the dreaded Pirate Hunter turned pirate, the three-bladed swordsman with a 79 million beri bounty on his head. On his occasional walks around the city, nobody looked his way except to think, _There goes the princess's green-haired pet_. It didn't seem to bother Zoro one way or the other.

Zoro and Coza walked in silence. Zoro did not have much to say to anyone, but around Coza he was especially reticent. Coza didn't much care. The two had barely met ten years ago, and when Coza had heard he'd died - well, it hadn't mattered, except for how it affected Vivi. That was the extent to which Zoro mattered to him. If it made Vivi feel better to have the silent, useless man around, Coza would put up with him. If Coza ever caught him upsetting Vivi, he would toss Zoro back into the ocean himself, tragic past or no.

But for now, this was fine. Just a walk in the city. Coza gestured for Zoro to stop as they passed a particular house. "Look at that," he said, jerking his head towards one of the windows. "See how the glass distorts your reflection? Every time I go past this house, it reminds me of that story about the Devil's mirror."

"I don't know it." Zoro's voice was its usual neutral deadpan, but nonetheless he looked into the glass, tilted his head to watch how one eye became monstrously huge while his chin shrunk to a line. Behind him, Coza appeared as a wavy blur.

"Well," Coza began, "there's a legend in some islands that the Devil once made a great and terrible mirror. All the good and pure things reflected in the mirror became disfigured and perverted, while whatever was loathesome and worthless would be magnified until they seemed to be the only things in the world. If a man looked into this mirror, the good part of his soul disappeared, leaving only the bad: greed, jealousy, wickedness, lust, things like that. Other times, a man would see what he most longed for in the world, only he would resort to evil means to achieve it, and betray his friends, and shut out the goodness in the world.

"The Devil thought this was an excellent mirror. He wanted to fly with it up to Heaven and try it on God and the Angels. So he started to fly up with the mirror in his hands. But as he flew higher and higher, his hands started to shake so badly with excitment that he dropped the mirror, and it fell to the earth and broke into a thousand pieces. But this was even worse, because each piece had as much power as the original whole mirror. Some pieces were so small, no bigger than splinters, and these pieces flew into people's eyes and hearts. Whoever had a piece of this glass in their eye or heart turned mean, and only saw evil in the world. That's why, if we meet some particularly wicked or ruthless person, that he must have the Devil's Glass in him. But I'm pretty sure," he finished, smiling, "that this is just some regular poor-quality glass."

Zoro remained standing in front of the window for some minutes more. His right hand caressed the hilt of the white sword at his side, as Coza had seen him sometimes do. _He's no fighter anymore_, Coza thought wryly, _but that's something you can't wish away just through neglect._

Finally, Zoro turned away. He said, "Any glass I might have had in me has been bled out long ago. I wish for nothing in this world." He looked up at the still-snowing sky, and added, "I'd like to go back to the palace."

Coza shrugged. "Fine by me. It's getting cold, anyway." They started to tramp back they way they'd come, lifting their feet high to clear the accumulating snow. Two boys, maybe nine or ten years old, pulled up and walked almost beside them, chattering and lugging a sled behind.

"Did you hear about the Snow Queen?" one boy asked.

"No," said the other. "What's a Snow Queen?"

"I heard one of the sailors talking 'bout it. He just got back from a winter island, said he might as well have stayed there if he'd known this was the welcome he was gonna get! But he said the Snow Queen might visit us in Alubarna, if it kept snowing like this."

"All right, but who the hell's this Snow Queen?" the other boy said impatiently.

"Well. She's like the queen bee of snow, 'cause it's like a swarm of bees, see? And she flies in the snowclouds. The Snow Queen likes to look in all the windows in winter, and when she puts her hands on the windowpanes, they turn all frosted, and look like flowers."

"Oh, I've seen that! Was that the Snow Queen?"

"Maybe. And sometimes when a person goes too far out in the snow, the Snow Queen finds them. If it's a handsome man, she'll kiss him, and her kiss is so cold that they die, only they don't notice it's cold 'cause they think they're being kissed by the most beautiful woman in the world."

"Gross. I'd never her kiss me. If the Snow Queen came near me, I'd say 'Back off, lady!' and stick her with a hot iron!"

"Stupid. Why would you take a hot iron with you in the snow?"

"Why not?" the other boy countered, and they fell to bickering.

Coza smiled. "It's funny what people make up to explain the world, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically. He did not expect an answer, and was not disappointed. "I mean," he continued after the requisite moment's pause, "using a beautiful Snow Queen to explain hypothermia. That's pretty great."

"There are worse ways to die," Zoro said.

"True enough," Coza replied, humoring him. "At least the Snow Queen sends you off with a kiss. Still," he threw a glance over his shoulder at the other man, "I guess you'd know all about those worse ways, eh?"

Zoro was silent. Coza shrugged. He hadn't been trying to bait Zoro or draw him out; it was simply the habit of conversation. Coza turned his attention back to finding their way to the palace amid the vision-distorting storm. They continued on without speaking, preoccupied by the thousand little discomforts of walking in the snow.

It was only an hour later, when Coza had already stepped inside the palace doors, that he realized Zoro was no longer with him.

_Shit_, Coza thought grimly as he ran to Cobra's office to report the news. _Vivi is not going to like this_. Forget Zoro upsetting the princess; it was looking like Coza would have to throw himself in the ocean by day's end.

-----to be continued  
**notes:** Two pieces of oral tradition in one chapter! That's pretty heavy. So, word on the street is that women of small-town Japan like Zoro because he's "cool" - i.e. he exhibits bad-ass Japanese samurai spirit. However, they don't necessarily want their sons or boyfriends to act or possess potty-mouths like Zoro. Thank God? Also, next chapter - Zoro. The 'K' word. Inner turmoil. Be there.


	3. A Little Boy and A Little Girl

**notes**: Thank you for all the feedback! They have really made me want to keep going with this story. As Christy pointed out, if you've read "The Snow Queen" then the plot will be fairly easy to predict. Though I hope the story won't become mundane because of it. Anyways, on with the "K" word!

Chopper: Kangaroo?  
Sanji: Croissant?  
Usopp: No, that starts with a "C." Kalaidescope?  
Luffy: Pirate **K**ing?  
Nami: Knowledge?  
Usopp: Kalaidescope of knowledge?  
Nami: Ooh, good one. (high-fives Usopp)  
Zoro: HEY. I am trying to angst here! (sulks)

"The Second Story: A Little Boy and a Little Girl"

_"'Are you still freezing?' she asked, and then she kissed him on the forehead. Ooh! It was colder than ice; it went right to his heart, which was already half ice. He felt as if he would die, but only for a moment, and then he felt fine. He no longer noticed the cold all around him." - Hans Christian Andersen, "The Snow Queen"_

There was a sleigh. It was very large. The sleigh was all white, and in it sat someone who was very small, who had black hair and large dark eyes. The sleigh circled around the market square twice, but no one seemed to notice it but Zoro, and then it seemed that the small person became a woman dressed all in white. But when the sleigh finally stopped in front of him, she had changed again, and he saw who it was, and climbed up beside her.

Kuina smiled at him without speaking. She made a gesture and the sleigh once more started to move, out of the square and down the streets, through the city gates and across the snow-covered desert. Zoro paid it no attention. Fumblingly, he undid the sword from his hip and offered it to Kuina.

"It's yours," he said. "I asked for it, after...afterwards. But it's yours. Take it."

"Keep it for a little while longer." Her voice was high and sweet, a child's voice. She looked around. "We've made good progress. We'll be there soon."

Zoro frowned. The Kuina in his memory was never a child. When he recalled her, she was always older than he, taller than he, stronger than he and already grown-up. Looking at her now, sitting next to him on the sleigh, Zoro marveled at how young she'd really been. She had not yet entered the awkwardness of adolescence. Her limbs were thin and her hands less than half the size of Zoro's own. Kuina's face was smooth and still round with baby fat. Zoro could have snapped her in half.

"Are you cold, Zoro?" Kuina asked, and for an instant she was as tall as Zoro remembered her. "Come crawl under this bearskin with me." She held up a corner of a bearskin blanket. Zoro slid beneath it, feeling hardly warmer. "I shall give you a kiss; that will make you feel better."

Zoro started to draw away uneasily, but the arms she put around his neck were thin and childlike, and when she kissed his cheek he could smell the familiar scent of dirt and sweat and scented powder. Then he felt not so cold. He realized, all at once, that he was really talking to Kuina and she was really sitting with him. Something inside him broke. Zoro put his own arms around her, felt how her small body was almost as nothing next to his.

"Kuina," he said, his voice cracking. "All this time. I just wanted to be with you. I kept trying. But I didn't know how to get to you, and you kept disappearing."

Kuina made soothing sounds. She kissed him again, and Zoro grew calm. "I'm here now," she said. "And there's just one thing you have to do, Zoro. After you finish it, we'll be together forever and ever, and we'll go see the whole wide world. You just have to do one thing, okay?" She pulled back her face to smile at him.

Zoro didn't smile back. Had he ever been this small? he wondered. Had he ever been this thin, this grubby? Had this particular scent of small child ever covered his own body? Had there ever been a time when the only blood he shed was from a scraped knee? Had there ever been a time when the future meant tomorrow, and bounties and pirates and battles to the death were things that happened to other people? Or had that all been a dream, something he thought up to logically explain his current existence?

Had Kuina really been this small?

"I think you need another kiss," said Kuina, and touched her lips to his cheek again. "One thing, Zoro. Please."

"I'll do it," said Zoro. Of course he would. He had waited so long to see Kuina; what was one little thing?

She smiled. "That's good. No more kisses for you now, or I might kiss you to death!" Kuina was tall again, and beautiful. Her black hair was as short as ever, but the face it framed was a woman's, all dark eyes and cocky smile. Just the way he remembered her.

They left the ground and started to fly, leaving Alabasta far behind. Zoro could see the ocean pass under them, dotted here and there by islands, and then broken by the long continent called the Red Line. The air rushing past them was freezing cold, but Zoro felt quite warm under the bearskin with Kuina. At last they reached a castle made all of ice. It was nighttime. Zoro and Kuina went inside and laid themselves down to sleep. Zoro slept as he always did, heavily and sprawled out everywhere. But now Kuina slept beside him, her slim arms circled about his neck and her head tucked sweetly next to his.

The morning after Zoro disappeared, it stopped snowing in Alabasta. By noon, it had already begun to melt.

xXxXxXx

"Vivi."

Coza sat beside her in the grand foyer, trying his best to calm her. "He's only been gone five days."

"Five days!" Vivi snapped her head about to face him, her eyes wild. Her voice was taking on that hysterical edge, Coza noted with concern, that she usually reserved for usurping villains and civil wars.

He tried again. "Remember when he was gone for a week? You didn't worry half as much about him then."

"It's not the same!" Vivi cried. She twisted the fabric of her skirt between shaking fingers. "Pelu's always been able to find him before. We've always known where he was and could go for him if we needed to. It's never been like this before. Pelu's never... where is Pelu?" She looked around the darkened room, as if the falcon guard might be hiding in some corner.

"He's just gotten back." Then, as Vivi opened her mouth, Coza added patiently, "He's going to have some supper, then go look again. You must admit he deserves that much."

Vivi flushed. It was after ten o'clock. The rest of the palace had had their suppers hours ago. She let out a shaky breath. "I'm sorry, darling," she said, and managed a smile. "You're right. Pelu's trying his best. You all are. I'm being selfish."

Coza kissed her. "You don't know how to be selfish," he said fondly. "Go to bed, love. Tomorrow, if they're needed, I'll ask the Duck Squad to search as well." He breathed an inward sigh of relief as she nodded.

Rising, Vivi kissed him good-night. "I'll see you in the morning, Coza." She left the room and closed the door quietly.

Coza sat in the seat she had occupied. Rubbing his temples absently, he thought about how nice it would be if Alabasta never saw Roronoa Zoro again.

An hour later, Igaram received a knock on his door. He opened it to find Vivi standing on the other side. Igaram sighed. He already knew every word of the conversation that was about to take place.

"Go," he said. "I'll cover for you."

Vivi looked at him in some surprise. "Oh," she said. "Is it really okay?"

Igaram let out a small laugh. "Princess, you can't decide to run away in the middle of the night and _then_ ask the Captain of the Guard if it's all right. However," he added, "I am touched that you came anyhow. You didn't have to."

"I did, though," Vivi responded, smiling tiredly. "You're almost the only one who understands, Igaram. It wouldn't have been right to leave without telling you. Only-" she hesitated. "Carue will understand why I can't take him," she said finally. "But do let Coza down gently. He doesn't deserve the headaches I give him."

Igaram smiled back. He took Vivi's shoulders and hugged her fiercely. "Go with my blessings, little princess," he whispered. "Go find Zoro and keep him safe. If you cannot restore him to us, no one can."

Vivi nodded, taking comfort in the protecting circle of Igaram's embrace. She would need the strength of that embrace once she reached the ocean. Vivi stepped back, grinned almost like her old self, saluted smartly, then ran back to her own room to finish packing.

xXxXxXx

Pelu the falcon wheeled over the empty, still-damp desert. His yellow eyes were alert and sharp, but nothing stirred on the desert floor except for a mouse. A snake. A brittle bush. A bit of sand. Pelu caught a breeze and coasted further into the desert interior, away from the city.

_Let me find you, Roronoa Zoro,_ he thought. _And when I do, be dead. Be dead, so that we can start living again._

------to be continued  
**notes:** Everyone wants Zoro dead, oh no! Next chapter: We finally meet some people who are happy! I admit, I agree with TopazDragon - the more I write of Coza, the more I think, "Wow, this guy's kind of an ass." But then, he's kind of an ass in the manga, too. What can I do.


	4. The Dial Garden

**notes:** As always, thanks for the reviews! They are very encouraging. Finally we move away from angsty Alabasta to angst on the high seas! Though not by Zoro, for a change. Wahoo?  
For the purposes of this fic, Smoker has been promoted from Colonel to Major-General, and Hina from Colonel to Brigadier.

_"'Oh, how I've longed for such a sweet little girl,' said the old woman. 'Now you'll see how well the two of us will get along!' And as she combed little Gerda's hair, Gerda forgot more and more about Kai, who was like a brother, because the old woman knew magic, although she was not a bad witch." - Hans Christian Andersen, "The Snow Queen"_

"Third Story: The Dial Garden"

Vivi kept her hands light on the rigging, pulling and giving slack as the wind moved capraciously around the boat. It was still dangerous to sail Grand Line waters alone, and for outsiders it was not only dangerous but also foolhardy. But Vivi had grown up in this stretch of ocean, had spent all her life around Grand Line sailors and ships. Even if she was no natural seaswoman herself, Vivi could draw on a lifetime of accustomation to get her through at least the milder forms of Grand Line temper.

It didn't hurt that this was her personal boat, and naturally equipped to withstand the ocean's rough winds and tides as well as any ship, small though it was. Too, nagivation had gotten easier in the last few years. Nami had steered the _Going Merry_ safely through the Grand Line by instinct, all those years ago. But not everyone (in fact, almost no one) possessed that kind of skill. So Nami had consulted Usopp and together they'd come up with a set of instruments, using dials, that kept track of changes in the wind and ocean tides. These days, even an average person could sail from island to island without serious incident. Those monitors were fastened to the outside cabin wall on Vivi's boat, along the Eternal Log Pose for Alabasta. As long as Vivi kept an eye on them, she would be all right until she reached her destination.

Wherever that was.

Vivi had to admit, she was still a little uncertain on this point, though she found herself sailing in the direction of the Sakura Kingdom by instinct. Zoro had disappeared into the snow, and Sakura was the snowiest place Vivi knew of. It didn't make perfect sense, but that was the direction Vivi's hands had worked the sail, and she knew from travelling with Luffy that sometimes, instinct was the best guide. Ah, that was the other thing. She had to find Luffy. He was supposed to be sailing back into the Grand Line from South Blue any day now. Though Vivi had not yet decided whether it would be best to find the Pirate King before or after she'd found Zoro. Big-hearted though he was, the deliberate concealment of his beloved friend, long thought dead, was something not even Luffy would laugh off. Vivi didn't lie to herself. She was terrified of confronting Luffy. But, she reasoned, Luffy was likely to be _less_ angry with her if she presented both the news and Zoro at the same time.

On the other hand, things certainly would be easier for her if she had Luffy's help in the actual search for Zoro. Things tended to gravitate towards Luffy. Or rather, he had a special knack for being in the wrong place at the right time. Vivi had a feeling that once Luffy joined in the search, they would practically be transported to the doorstep of wherever Zoro was. Besides, scared as Vivi might be of facing him, she missed Luffy. It was already two years since she last saw him, and she had not seen any of the others for longer.

It certainly was lonely, sailing the Grand Line on one's own.

She did not remain alone for long. On the third day after leaving Alubarna, Vivi ran into the Marines.

Two commanders' ships were bearing down on her little boat from behind, flanked by two smaller common ships. Vivi didn't know whether to smile or cry. One commanding boat read "Hina" while the other, "Smoker." The two Marines who surely would not let the princess of Alabasta sail away alone without an explanation. The two Marines she liked seeing best under normal circumstances, but the two she least wanted to see right now.

Vivi uttered a few choice oaths she'd learned from Chaka and Pelu.

Sure enough, the four Marine ships veered course slightly to run alongside her boat. Flags of alliance were run up the masts. Vivi sighed and obligingly ran her own flag up in reply. When she raised her head, she could see Smoker looking down at her from his ship's railing.

"Hoy there, Princess," he greeted her around the ever-present cigars in his mouth. "You've strayed a little far for a pleasure cruise. Are you alone?" He raised an incredulous eyebrow.

"Major-General." Vivi bowed her head respectfully. She gestured to the boat around her. "Yes, I am alone, as you can see. And I'm not on a pleasure cruise. I have - I have business."

"A funny sort of business, carried out alone, on a private boat, in the middle of the Grand Line," Smoker observed.

_Oh, dear_, Vivi thought. _I wish he wouldn't make it sound so shady. It's not like I'm doing anything_ wrong. _Just completely mad._ Out loud, she said, "If you must know, Major-General, I'm searching for Roronoa Zoro. I think he's alive."

She waited as Smoker took a couple of thoughtful pulls on his cigars. "I think you'd better come aboard, Princess," he said finally.

xXxXxXx

Smoker had evidently contacted Hina while Vivi was being helped up the side of the ship. The two of them were waiting for her in Smoker's cabin.

"Brigadier." Vivi nodded at the blonde woman, who inclined her head gracefully in return.

"Princess." Hina tapped a pack of cigarettes against her palm briskly. "Now, what's this about Roronoa Zoro?"

Hina was never one to waste time, thought Vivi. But the look she gave Vivi was kind, and that encouraged her to go on with her story. "I'm searching for him," Vivi said boldly. "I have, er, reason to believe that he is alive."

"Reason to believe?" Smoker echoed. He shook his head. "Princess Vivi, I know he was your great friend, and as always, I cannot fully express my regret at being the one to find his body. But I did find it, and my crew did their best to revive him. Forgive my bluntness, but he is dead. I buried him at sea myself."

Vivi was quiet. She would not tell them the truth. They would not know before Luffy knew; she owed the Pirate King that much. Raising her head, Vivi said with every appearance of stubborness, "He's alive. I know it. I - I..." Quick, what did people say? "It came to me in a dream."

"In a dream?" It was Hina's turn to repeat Vivi's words. She and Smoker exchanged a glance. _The girl's gone mad_.

Good. Let them think she was crazy. "I think he might be in the Sakura Kingdom," she added experimentially. "So I'll just be on my way again, and ask Dalton if he's seen Zoro wandering through any of the towns."

Hina's gaze was growing alarmed. "I would advise against sailing into Sakura right now," she said cautiously. "There's a blizzard moving into that country. Perhaps," she continuted as Vivi opened her mouth to protest, "you would like to sail with us, Princess? We're just on our way back to Loguetown. You can stay at the house for a while, see the children, and when the blizzard passes we shall send an escort with you to Sakura with fresh supplies. How does that sound?"

She and Smoker watched Vivi carefully. Vivi hesitated. No, she didn't want to go to Loguetown, and she certainly did not want to be "escorted" to Sakura. On the other hand, if she did not agree, it seemed likely that Smoker would order the entire fleet turned around to "escort" Vivi straight back to Alabasta like a parent marching a naughty child back to her room. And it would be nice to see the house. And she did enjoy seeing the children. And Loguetown was lovely at this time of the year.

"All right," she said weakly. "That sounds wonderful."

"Good!" Formality pushed aside, Hina came around the side of the table and kissed Vivi on the cheek. "I have tickets to the theatre. We shall have a wonderfully relaxing time. Smoker, do call His Majesty and let him know Vivi's safe."

_As if I were a child_, Vivi thought, blushing furiously. "Please don't do that," she stammered.

"But my dear -"

"_Please_." Vivi's voice rose and cracked with desperation. "He's quite busy, and there's no need to worry him. And besides," she added, knowing it sounded ridiculous, "I'm not a child."

"We won't call Alabasta," Smoker rumbled. He rose mightily to his feet. Hina shot him an exasperated look but remained silent. Clearly, he had called the last word on this matter. "I'll have your boat stowed in the hold, Princess." Nodding to her again, Smoker went out of the cabin.

Hina sighed. "Come along. We'll have your things brought to a room. We should reach Loguetown the day after next." She led Vivi out of the room. "Really, Princess, you look about a million years old! Have they been working you very hard at the palace?"

"Well, not exactly..." Vivi was hard pressed to explain without going into the whole Zoro affair. She _was_ worked hard these days, but she knew Hina worked just as much, if not more, and the older woman looked fabulous. Hina was in her forties now, but her face and body were as smooth as the day Vivi met her ten years ago. "I think it must be the weather," Vivi finished lamely. "It's been so unusual this winter."

"Yes, snow, wasn't it?" Hina said absently. She stopped at a painted blue door. "This will be your room. I'll have one of the men bring your things around in a bit." She stepped aside to allow Vivi space to open the door. Vivi nodded, turned the handle, and stepped into the sparse, clean cabin. She turned around to thank Hina.

The older woman patted her shoulder. "You'll feel better after some rest," she said kindly, and then she was gone, leaving Vivi alone.

xXxXxXxX

Vivi had only visited Loguetown a few times in the past, but she always remembered it as a grand place. The streets were always full of people, and the squares were constantly taken over by some activity. What impressed her the most was the way the buildings soared towards the sky, functioning just as buildings without having to double as fortresses against magnified natural elements.

Smoker and Hina's residences were near the Marine headquarters in the center of the city. It was a large, multistoried house, but not cloistered off as other big mansions might be. Of course Smoker would want to live amongst his town, Vivi thought with a smile. It was a warm house, but a little too carefully arranged, as if someone had ordered all the furniture and decorations without knowing the master and mistress's tastes. It was a place, Vivi understood, that Hina and Smoker did not have the luxury to spend too much time in.

Two small bodies shot out of the front door as their party approached. Smoker and Hina both knelt down, ready to receive them. A girl and a boy, both the same age with dark blonde hair, catapulted themselves into their parents arms.

"Mummy! Daddy!" they bawled into Smoker and Hina's ears. "We're so glad you're back! Tell Cook to stop giving us asparagus for lunch!"

"But asparagus is very good for you," Hina said mildly, kissing her daughter and son.

"Lets you see in the dark," Smoker agreed. He swung the children up, one in each arm, with an enthusiasm that belied his usual gruff appearance.

The girl rolled her eyes. "That's _carrots_, Daddy," she said witheringly, then squealed as Smoker started to go into the house.

"Helen, Neil," Hina prompted. "You remember Aunt Vivi, don't you?"

Helen and Neil extended small hands for Vivi to shake. "How do you do, Aunt Vivi?" Neil asked gravely. "Have you lost some weight?"

"Why yes, Neil, thank you." Vivi hid a laugh. The last time she had seen the twins, they had been sixteen months old. "They've grown so quickly," she said to Hina as they entered the foyer.

"Yes, it's really quite distressing," Hina agreed. "I don't see the children for months at a stretch, only to come home and find none of the clothes I bought for them have a prayer of fitting. Still," she continued as Vivi laughed, "they are turning out well, aren't they?"

"Very well." Vivi watched them play with Smoker. "The Major-General seems to like being a father."

Hina smiled and shrugged off her coat. "He's a natural parent." She held out her hands for Vivi's.

"You're not?"

"Heavens, no. Nurse had to teach me how to sing to them, even, when they were born. Come along. I'll make us a cup of tea. Cook!" she called down the hall. A thin, fearsome-looking woman thrust her head around the corner.

"Welcome back, Madam," the woman said severely. Vivi got the feeling that she sounded dour even at a wedding. "How may I be of service?"

"Some tea for myself and the Princess. Have it brought around to the Lavendar Room." Hina waved a hand airily, dismissing the cook, and led Vivi down yet another hallway. Vivi followed her meekly. She never ceased to be fascinated by Hina. The other woman was poised and elegantly, thoughtlessly aristocratic, in a way that Vivi had never been, for all that she was royalty. True, Vivi had also been born into fabulous wealth, but she was also the caretaker of a desert nation with uncertain weather. Her responsibilities to her people had been taught to her from the cradle. Hina, on the other hand, had been indulged all her life, the only daughter of a military official. That she chose her father's profession, and did well in it, was a decision applauded and praised, not expected of her. Every time Vivi saw Hina, she wondered at the casual arrogance which other people seemed able to afford.

When they had all settled in the Lavendar Room and the tea was brought around, Vivi had to admit it was excellent. In fact, she thought, it was all excellent. A cup of tea in one hand, Helen snuggled in her lap, Smoker and Hina making small, quiet conversation on the couch while Neil dropped cookie crumbs into the carpet.

Vivi was glad she had come.

xXxXxXx

Altogether, Vivi stayed three weeks. As promised, Hina took her to the theatre, which Vivi enjoyed immensely. During the day, while Hina and Smoker worked at the Marine Headquarters, Vivi walked about the town by herself or with the children. In the evenings they all had supper together, and after Helen and Neil were put to bed Vivi talked with Smoker and Hina. Hina had clothes ordered for her "from the best dressmaker in North Blue," waving Vivi's protests away with an airy hand.

There were parties, too. Smoker tried to avoid these when he could, but with Hina Vivi eventually met most of Loguetown society. It was fun to dress up for dinner, to go from the chill of winter nights into warm, chattering houses. Hina threw parties of her own, which Vivi helped plan. At these, women asked about her dress and listened, thrilled, to her stories of life in the Grand Line. The men flirted with her. The young ones did so shyly, old ones with exaggerated gallantry, for they all knew the pretty princess of Alabasta was engaged to be married. And then they too listened with respect as Vivi demonstrated that she was not _just_ a pretty princess engaged to be married.

All in all, Vivi enjoyed herself thoroughly. And, if she was honest, she admitted that her pleasure was tinged with relief. _It's not too late_, she thought whenever a girl drew her aside, laughing, to share in a bit of gossip. _I'm not too old for this_. A lifetime of having to be kinder, gentler, more responsible, more mature than everyone else had not ruined her for idle banter. Six years of being patient with a half-there Zoro had not closed her off completely from the living, laughing world. There was still time for her to be young and happy, and Vivi seized it with the desperate strength of a drowning person.

It was only after three weeks, on a chill, rainy day, that Vivi realized she had not spoken Zoro's name in quite some time. In fact, she had not _thought_ about Zoro in quite some time, and this made her feel guilty. Only a short while ago, he had been her daily preoccupation. And goodness knew where he was now, while she'd been attending dinners and taking walks. For all she knew, he could really be...

Vivi started out of her chair and ran up the stairs to Hina's office. She was about to burst in when Hina's voice sounded from inside the room.

"Not now, darling," Hina was saying. "Mummy is trying to apprehend some low-life criminals."

"How about Daddy?" Neil's voice said.

"Your father's tapping a DenDen Mushi conversation, I believe. You may show him your drawing if you are very quiet."

"I'll be quiet as a sniper, Mummy."

"That's a dear."

The door opened and Neil bounded through, clutching a piece of paper. Vivi went through the door before it shut again, but Hina only flapped her hand at her.

"I'm sorry, Princess, but this is really quite important."

"But, Brigadier -"

"We have a lovely collection of dial recordings in the Drawing Room," Hina cut in, all business once more now that she had work. "Perhaps you could amuse yourself with them." She did not look at Vivi.

Vivi backed quietly out of the room again. She knew better than to make a scene, if she ever wanted to leave the house in good graces. There seemed to be nothing to do but listen to the dial recordings until Hina or Smoker were less busy. Over dinner, perhaps.

The Drawing Room was on the third floor. It was not particularly large, but there were several comfortable old chairs scattered about. And the dials did look very interesting. They were recordings of speeches or conversations, neatly labeled. Some were official, others were personal, no doubt things Smoker and Hina had found amusing at the time. In spite of her growing anxiety, Vivi smiled at the dials labeled "Helen and Neil, first words."

She picked up one labeled "Monkey D. Luffy, Guild Speech." She pressed the top of the dial and sat down in a nearby chair to listen.

_"Nami, hey, this jacket isn't really very comfortable. Do I have to wear it? ...I do? Aren't I supposed to make a speech or something? No, I didn't. I didn't know I had to write it beforehand. I thought it was just, you know, talking. What? It's recording? Oh. Oh! Hi! So I saw most of you at lunch. It was good, wasn't it? Did anyone ask for the recepie? Um, so I think I'm supposed to be talking about the Pirates Guild and cooperating with the World Government. 'Cause I know it sounds funny. How can we be pirates if we work with the government? People who do that are...well, not-pirates. Remember Black Cat Kuro? He was kind of crazy."_

Vivi listened to the rest of the 'speech,' a small smile playing about her lips. She hadn't heard this one. That was during a year when she hadn't seen Luffy at all. It seemed funny, to be holding a bit of Luffy that she didn't quite know.

When the recording was finished, Vivi put it back and picked up one that said "Nami, Going Merry Maiden Voyage."

_"Hello. I know it's raining, but thank you all for coming. It's my great pleasure and honor to send the seatrain_ Going Merry _on her maiden voyage. With this journey, a new era of travel and international communication begins."_

Vivi pressed the dial top again, stopping the recording. She _had_ been at that event. It had been wonderful to see Nami's face in front of the crowd, glowing with pride and honest joy through the rain. The mayor of Water Seven, Iceberg, and his one-time shipyard partner Franky had supervised the construction of _Going Merry_, and Luffy had of course chosen the name. Not that anyone could dream of naming the seatrain anything else.

Putting the dial back on the shelf, Vivi curiously picked up a third, this one labeled "Smoker and Petty Officer Johnson, Elevator Conversation." What could Smoker have been talking about in an elevator?

_"Major-General, I've obtained a copy of Mr. Usopp's latest inventions from Mr. Usopp himself, as requested, sir." _

_"And?" _

_"And...sir. May I speak frankly?" _

_"You'll find yourself a dead man if you speak otherwise. What is it?" _

_"It's - it's horrible, sir! Mr. Usopp has invented this...thing, that goes up and down! You get on it, and it goes up, and then down, and then it goes up again, and you can see it all happening!" _

_"Petty Officer Johnson, get a grip on yourself. A thing that goes up, you say?" _

_"Yes, sir!" _

_"**And** down? It goes both up and down?" _

_"Yes, sir!" _

_"I see. Petty Officer Johnson, please get on the next seatrain to Usopp's workyard. Give him my regards and inform him that he can stop wasting his time. The stairs have already been invented." _

_"No, sir! You don't understand! He's done it with dials. He's built a box, with doors, and when the doors open you get in the box. And if you press a button, the box goes up, and if you press another it goes down. He says it's so people can get from one floor to another without using stairs, but it's horrible, sir! When it's moving, you can feel your stomach falling out, and you're at the top or bottom before you even have time to scream, and he's put a window in it so you can see everything rush past you! It's horrible, sir! It's really, really horrible!" _

_"All right. I understand. It's horrible. Have one installed in Headquarters immediately."_

The recording ended with Petty Officer Johnson wailing in despair. Vivi laughed quietly. She had ridden on an elevator for the first time recently, and it was rather as he described it: her stomach lurching, the startling feeling of moving faster than she had any right to. And when it stopped, the oddest sensation of still moving up and down and up again. But Usopp was proud of his elevator, and rightly so. More and more government buildings were installing them, to save the trouble of stairs.

Thinking of her friends decided it. Vivi pushed away her anxieties and panicky what-ifs. She had lingered too long for her own pleasure, it was true, but now she was going again. Vivi hastily replaced the dial, left the Drawing Room, and clattered down the stairs.

xXxXxXx

"Won't you stay just a little longer?"

Hina and Smoker met her in the foyer, called away from their work by an alarmed maid saying that Princess Vivi was leaving and she had her luggage already with her.

It was tempting. Vivi knew it would be. How nice it would be to just stop! She could go back to Alabasta, and have her wedding, and throw her own parties, and play normal politics. No more secrets. No more lying to friends. No more worrying about a person who never took notice of her concern. Vivi knew this temptation well. She struggled with it every time Zoro disappeared or got lost. But every time, she remembered him turning to her in the moonlight, his eyes unreadable because they were full of conflicting feelings. And then years later, turning to her in the sun, his eyes unreadable because they were empty. And then the temptation always disappeared.

Vivi smiled at them. "I'm sorry, Brigadier, Major-General. I know this is terribly rude. You've been so kind to me these last few weeks. But this is something I need to do."

Hina sighed. "I suppose you are in your right mind. Very well. An escort of three ships will take you to the Sakura Kingdom -"

"That really isn't necessary -"

"To the Sakura Kingdom," Hina repeated, looking hard at her. "And will await you in the harbor while you conduct your business."

_No, no, no, no, no!_ Vivi wanted to scream.

"One ship," Smoker said. He crossed his arms.

Hina's eyes narrowed. "Two ships," she said, "and that's the end of it."

"Two ships," Smoker amended. He leaned down and picked up the one bag Vivi had packed. "Come on, Princess. I'll take you to the harbor." He went out the door.

Hina grabbed Vivi's hand as she was about to follow Smoker. Vivi turned to find Hina smiling. "Safe journey, Vivi," Hina said. "I don't fully understand what you hope to find, but I wish you good fortune in finding it."

Vivi smiled back. Then she too walked out into the rain.

"By the way," Smoker said as she stepped onto her little boat. "Heard an interesting bit of news."

"Oh?"

Smoker looked her in the eye. "Seems the Pirate King's lurking near Little Garden these days. What do you think he's doing there?"

Vivi fought the temptation to laugh. "Probably hunting dinosaurs," she replied gravely. She held out a hand. "Thank you for everything, Major-General."

He shook it firmly. "Safe journey, Princess." He saluted, then turned on his heel and started back towards the house.

Vivi went inside the boat cabin. There was another memory, the most painful.

_She arrived at Water Seven two weeks after she received the news. Bursting into Luffy's room, she was shocked to find the place a mess. Things smashed and ripped, the walls punched through. Sanji, Usopp, Chopper, and Robin sat in chairs or on the floor, silent. The only sound was of Luffy sobbing. He was crouched on the floor, his head in Nami's lap. Nami was stroking his black hair soothingly, but tears were also running down her cheeks. _

_"What's going on?" Vivi asked uncertainly. They had told her Luffy was bad, but this did not even seem like the same person. _

_Usopp looked up, as if registering her presence for the first time. "He loved Zoro very much," the long-nosed boy said simply. She looked at him. His eyes were red, his face drawn and dull. He had not had the chance to grieve properly, she thought. None of them had. Their days were all spent on getting Luffy through in one piece and sane._

She was going to find Luffy at Little Garden. And if he wasn't at Little Garden, she would find him elsewhere. Luffy had to know. Nothing could happen until Luffy knew.

Because Luffy had loved Zoro very much.

------to be continued  
**notes:** Ahahaha. Smoker is not my favoritest character ever (though he is really hot without a shirt on!), so sorry his presence in this fic is minimal. Next chapter: finally, some Straw Hats!


	5. The Prince and Princess pt 1

**notes:** In regards to the shounen-ai questions, I don't really like the idea of Luffy being romantically involved with anybody. You can all heave a sigh of relief/disappointment now ;)

This 'story' is very long, so I've split it up into two chapters. It is so sneaky!

"Fourth Story: The Prince and Princess" part 1

It took two days to near Little Garden. Vivi knew that, strictly speaking, she should have taken a shorter route past it in order to reach Sakura. But she kept her little boat some ways ahead - not too far ahead - of the two Marine ships accompanying her, and if the rudder was angled towards Little Garden island, well, that wasn't her fault. After all, she wasn't the best sailor on the Grand Line. And the two Marine ships did not try to correct her path since, strictly speaking, they were her guards and not her jailors.

So it was that as soon as Little Garden's oversized outline appeared on the horizon, Vivi was pressed against the boat's rail, straining her eyes for any sign of the Pirate King.

She was not disappointed. They were still just specks, but Vivi could see Luffy's personal fleet off of the island's coast. As her own boat drew nearer, the hatted Jolly Roger painted on all three flags became visible. On the biggest ship, Luffy's own, it was painted on the sail as well. All three vessels were sitting idle in the water. Vivi scrambled to hoist the Arabasta flag on the boat's mast, ignoring the nervous shouts from Marines behind her.

Vivi forgot about the Marines entirely when a tall figure started jumping up and down on the fast-approaching ship in front of her. She fought the compulsion to jump up and down as well, and only barely controlled herself.

"Vivi! Hey, Vivi!" Luffy's foghorn of a voice stretched across the ocean between them, faintly but clearly. Vivi could just make out his arm lowering a pair of binoculars from his eyes.

"Luffy!" she called, even though she knew her voice couldn't carry half as far as his. "Stay there, I'm coming o-"

"What're you doing with the Marines?" Luffy yelled. "Sorry, I can't hear you from over here. Hey, hang onto something tight, okay?"

"What? Luffy, no!"

It was too late. Luffy had already dropped the binoculars and thrown back his rubber arms. Vivi barely had time to wrap herself around the mast before two rope-like arms shot across the waters and two large hands gripped the side of the boat. The arms slapped forcibly down into the water, hung there for a moment, then snapped back upwards. Vivi shut her eyes tight, preparing for the worst.

Sure enough, in the next instant the boat was sucked out of the water and through the air as Luffy's arms hurtled their way, swaying mightily, back to normal arm lengths. With her eyes closed, Vivi could almost pretend that she wasn't being flung fifty feet above open sea and upside down. That didn't stop her from screaming bloody murder. Specifically, Luffy's murder when she finally got her hands on him.

The boat crashed into the ocean again with a loud _slap!_ Amazingly, it was still upright. Vivi lay sprawled on the deck floor, watching through weakly opened eyes as Luffy's hands let go of the boat and snapped back into place.

"Don't just lie there." Luffy, all six feet ten inches of him, was grinning cheerfully at her from the side of his ship, the _Pistol_. "Come on up. I'll have your boat stowed in the hold."

Vivi managed to raise her head. "Luffy," she said weakly. "I don't think I can move right now."

Luffy gave her a look of round-eyed surprise. "Can't you? Funny, you were standing up a minute ago. Well, that's okay." He stretched out his arms _again_, grabbed Vivi around the waist, and tugged her easily as a rag doll onto deck. This time, Vivi didn't have the breath to scream. She just gurgled and did her best to return Luffy's spine-cracking hug.

The Pirate King, sun-browned arms wrapped firmly around Vivi's shoulders, threw back his head and laughed. "Wow, I'm glad to see you, Vivi!"

"I'm glad to see you to-" Vivi gasped.

"It's been what, a year?"

"Two."

"You sure are pale. Haven't they been feeding you at the palace?"

"No. I mean, it's not that."

"And you're breathing kinda hard. Have you been sick?"

"Luffy, I'd really like to get down now." Vivi's feet were dangling a full foot off the deck, and she was almost positive her lungs weren't inflating properly, squashed as they were against Luffy's collarbone.

"Oh!" Luffy laughed again, the same hiccupping, booming laugh Vivi remembered so well but which, at the moment, she was in no position to love. "Why didn't you say?" He let go of her waist and she thumped down onto the wooden deck. Vivi staggered as her still-shaky legs threatened to betray her, and gripped Luffy's arm for support. Raising her head, Vivi winced when she caught sight of the Marine ships sailing furiously towards them.

"Luffy," she said urgently, "those Marines. You have to get rid of them."

Luffy peered down at her. "Get rid of them?" he repeated, and scratched his head. "Like fire a cannonball at them or something? I mean, sure. I'm not really supposed to, but if you want I can. I'm _pretty_ sure Smoker won't cut off my head."

Vivi wanted to stamp her feet. It was amazing how one could spend a month preparing for a meeting with the undisputed ruler of the known seas, only to want to take him by the shoulders and shake him once one actually saw him. "You don't have to do that," she said, trying to keep the impatience out of her voice. "Just _tell_ them to go away."

Luffy brightened. "I can do that too," he agreed. He turned and hollered along the deck, "Hey, Nojiko! I need the megaphone. You, Mr. Funny-Looking Beard." He gestured to a young man with a goatee. "Find Nojiko and tell her I need the megaphone."

"Don't bother."

Vivi and Luffy both turned to see the tattooed woman hurrying down the aft deck steps with the megaphone in her arms. Reaching them at the rail, Nojiko thrust the megaphone at Luffy, then turned to Vivi with a smile. "The Marines are as good as gone," Luffy's personal assistant assured her. "Let's go down to the cabin and I'll fix you a cup of tea."

It was not so much of a suggestion as a kindly given command, and Vivi found herself following Nojiko halfway across the deck before even thinking about what Luffy might tell the Marines.

"The Princess Nefeltari Vivi is now a guest of the Pirate King and considered his loot," Luffy was blaring into the megaphone.

Nojiko took Vivi firmly by the hand and led her into the Captain's cabin. She all but steered Vivi into a nearby chair.

"She will receive the full protection of the Straw Hat Pirates," Luffy continued. "So if you could go away, that'd be great."

Vivi accepted a mug of tea from Nojiko and sipped it, shaking her head over Luffy's odd mixture of formality and insanity.

"Also, two more knots will put you in the territory of the Pirate King," Luffy added as an afterthought. "At which point, if I think it's necessary, I definitely won't hesitate to open fire on your ships."

There was a little silence. Nojiko went out of the cabin and back onto deck for a moment. "They've turned around," she reported when she came back inside. "The Marines must be getting smarter recruits nowadays."

Vivi chuckled. "Must be," she agreed. She had met Nojiko only a handful of times, but Vivi always liked seeing Nami's sister, who had come to work for Luffy some years back. In many ways she was very much like Nami. They both had the same briskness, the casual kindness, the same confidence. But Nojiko was calm where Nami was tempermental, and sensible where Nami was excitable. Vivi found Nojiko's presence soothing.

Vivi was just finishing her tea when Luffy stomped into the cabin. "All gone," he said with a wide grin, and put the megaphone down on the table.

"Luffy, remember next week you're due at Jaya. And we have to stop by Water Seven to review the new ships. And you'll have to give Smoker an explanation about today, _in writing_." Nojiko held up a black appointment book.

Luffy made a face. "I don't wanna."

"Too bad," Nojiko said briskly. "What color shirt do you want to wear for Jaya?"

"Aw, Nojiko!" Luffy made a bigger face. "You know, Iceberg's secretary lets him do whatever _he_ wants," he said reproachfully.

Nojiko snorted. "Iceberg's secretary is a pushover pansy who can't hold his liquor. Don't forget. Next week. Jaya. I'll let Little Garden know to prepare another place at dinner for Vivi." She disappeared out the door, presumeably to boss all of Little Garden around.

"Nojiko never lets me do what I want," Luffy remarked proudly when Nojiko had gone. "Isn't she a great secretary? Anyway," he turned to fix bright black eyes on Vivi, "what're you doing at Little Garden?"

"I-" Vivi took a moment to really look at Luffy. It was always startling to see him again. First, there was his height. No one had seen it coming, but when he'd turned eighteen, Luffy had shot up like a weed, growing even taller and lankier than before, until his head nearly scraped the ceiling. Then, there was his whole demeanor. When he wasn't around, Vivi always remembered Luffy as the wide-eyed, strangely intense boy of ten years ago. At twenty-seven, his face was still open and friendly, but there was a closed-off quality that had not been there before. Luffy knew things now, and no one had mistaken him for a dreaming little upstart for many years. Time had taught Luffy the hard ways of adulthood, and to guard something of himself against the world. Vivi thought it was a little sad. "I came to see you," she said.

Luffy's face split into a grin. On the other hand, some things never changed. "That's terrific! I was just about to go see _you!_" he exclaimed.

"Oh!" Vivi laughed uneasily. _He doesn't look angry_, she thought, _so it can't be about Zoro..._ "Whatever for?"

"About the wedding, of course!"

"The wedding?" Vivi stared at him in confusion. Funny, she hadn't told him about that, either. The invitations wouldn't even be printed for another three months.

Luffy nodded and plopped down on the floor with a thud. "Hey, did you know that Kaya's a doctor now?"

"Kaya?" Now Vivi was completely lost. She had no idea who Luffy was talking about.

"Yeah." Luffy smiled happily. "She's really smart, you know. She went away to school to get her doctoring degree and everything. But after a while, everyone wanted Kaya to get married because they thought it was a shame she had all that money her parents left her and no husband -"

Vivi interrupted, "But why were you going to see _me_ abou-"

"Just listen!" Luffy flapped a hand at her until she closed her mouth. "But Kaya didn't want any old husband. So she said okay, she'd get married, but it'd be to the man who understood her the best and could talk to her the best and who could tell her stories the best. It was like a kind of contest. Men came from everywhere just to talk to her. Sometimes they had to do it while she was healing someone, 'cause she said she wasn't going to stop working just to _talk_ to people -"

"Luffy, I still don't know what you're talking about."

"Listen! Everyone who came to talk with her was boring. They just wanted to marry a pretty girl or get her money or prove that they were good at talking or something. Then one day, he came right up to her window when she was waking up from a nap and started talking with her. They talked for a really long time and then he told her a story. Guess what story it was. You'll never guess." Luffy looked at her invitingly.

Vivi threw up her hands, resigned. "I'll never guess," she agreed. "What did he tell her?"

Luffy looked slightly put out that she wasn't going to play along, but continued on. "Well, he told Kaya a story about a boy whose parents had died. This boy often talked with a sick girl from the village to keep her spirits up. But one day the boy got a chance to be a pirate on the seas, so he left the village and his friend. A lot of the time the boy was really scared of all the monsters and other pirates who wanted to kill him. Sometimes he wanted to run away and go back home. But then he always thought about the girl waiting for him back at the village. She was counting on him! And when he thought about her, the boy felt like he could make it through one more day. Finally he became a brave warrior of the sea and returned home with lots of stories to tell!" Luffy spread his arms out wide. "Pretty cool, huh?"

Vivi thought she was beginning to understand. "I see," she smiled, "and now he and Kaya..."

"Are getting married." Luffy beamed. "They're at Little Garden already, 'cause Kaya wanted to see the dinosaurs. Come on, let's go!" He scrambled to his feet and bounded out of the cabin without waiting. Vivi hastily put down her mug and followed him.

On deck, Luffy was hollering for Nojiko and his navigator Pieter. "Pull up the anchors!" Luffy called as he clattered down the stairs. "Pieter, tell the _Ketchup Star_ and _Horn Point_ we're heading ashore."

"Yes, sir." A young man, perhaps nineteen, materialized at Luffy's elbow. He gave Vivi a somber nod. "Princess."

"Pieter." Oh dear. Vivi always forgot what Pieter was like. He was another one who could manage to look grim at a wedding. And it looked like he would soon have the chance. "How's the, er, navigating going?"

"We made it here from South Blue without incident, Your Highness," Pieter replied glumly. He managed to make it sound like a tragedy.

"Pieter's never gotten us lost or shipwrecked _once_!" Luffy took his attention from directing the crew for a moment to cuff Pieter fondly about the head. Pieter stumbled slightly. "Though that'd be pretty cool, too," Luffy added. "I'm trying to get Pieter to have more adventures, but he doesn't seem too keen."

"That's because Miss Nami told me before she left that if I didn't read the maps absolutely correctly, she would personally deliver me into a world of pain." Pieter rubbed the back of his head, wincing.

"Ah." Vivi nodded sympathetically. She had seen Nami deliver people into a world of pain before, and it was never pretty. "I can see how you wouldn't want to, uh, steer Luffy wrong."

"You have no idea how many times I get that, Your Highness," Pieter said gloomily. He sighed and shuffled off to pass Luffy's instructions to the other ships.

"Strange boy." Nojiko came up behind Vivi. "An absolute disaster at parties. But he's a damn good navigator."

"Nami trained him herself," Luffy chimed in. "Oh good, we're moving." The three of them shifted their weights reflexively as the _Pistol_ began to slice her way through the waters toward Little Garden.

It was a different place now, Little Garden. Luffy had cleared out the Baroque Works shed and built his own house there, almost like a vacation base. He did like to hunt dinosaurs there, but he'd realized early on (with help from Nami via lots of hitting) that since Little Garden's creatures were one-of-a-kind, killing the dinosaurs would eventually mean _no more dinosaurs_. So he'd claimed the island as his own and put it under Pirate Law. Anyone who paid tribute could come to Little Garden, but a person catching a dinosaur who didn't release it again, or who gave a dinosaur serious injuries, soon found himself dealing with pirates and not with Marines. Pirates had a much simpler view of justice than the government. That was one of the benefits of not employing courts or lawyers. In Luffy's view, anyway.

Vivi tried not to get caught up in the giddiness as Little Garden's shoreline drew closer. She could see another ship moored there now. Two flags flew from the mast: one bearing a mortar and pestle motif, the other, a hammer and a familiar long nose.

So Usopp was getting married. And Luffy had been about to find her at Arabasta to tell her about it. And now Vivi was being reunited with not one but two old friends. Soon she would get to meet Kaya as well. On the surface, it felt like the most wonderful of reunions.

But she still had not told Luffy about Zoro.

Oh dear.

Vivi began to get the sinking feeling that she, too, was a disaster at parties.

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Next chapter! Click it, click it! By the way, the OP video game "Round the Land" is really fun. It's like controlling my very own episode. Luffy's little sound effects when he picks up treasure boxes is beyond adorable. I encourage you all to purchase this fine piece of electronic media.


	6. The Prince and Princess pt 2

"Fourth Story: The Prince and Princess" part 2

Luffy's Little Garden base, just inside the jungle, was spacious and sunlit. Though not exactly opulent, it was haphazardly decorated with things that Luffy had acquired in his travels: a statue of a monkey here, a large unpolished piece of amethyst in the hall, a tattered pair of rainboots hanging from the chandelier. Vivi was almost positive Luffy had no idea what exactly was in his house. She was also sure that he'd put up a fight to the death if anything, even the rainboots, was carried off.

They were all sitting in the mismatched dining room. Introductions had been made, hugs had been shared, and Vivi had exclaimed over Usopp's new beard. She thought it looked wonderful, and said so. The curly crop filled out his thin face and lent him a solemn, distinugished look. Not that anything could quite hide the grin splitting his face as he talked, as usual, a mile a minute. The plate of food lay in front of him, untouched. At least, untouched by Usopp. The long-nosed inventor didn't seem to notice or mind that Luffy was reaching across the table to grab at his meal.

"It sure is lucky you were passing by, Vivi!' Usopp was exlaiming. He slapped his knee in delight. "We were just about to send a messenger around to Alubarna with the invitation."

Kaya added, squeezing Usopp's hand with her own, "We would have sent them sooner, only Usopp was using all the pigeons for an experiment, and then we were both swamped with work..."

"But the pigeons did very well, so it wasn't a complete disaster," Usopp said cheerfully. "You _will_ be a bridesmaid, Vivi, won't you? We put that in the invitation too."

"Yes, of course, but..." Vivi twisted a bit of tablecloth around in her hands. "Listen. I'm so happy to see you all, and it's absolutely wonderful about your wedding, Usopp, but I wasn't just 'passing by.' There's something I have to tell you." She drew a shaky breath. It was now or never. "Zoro's alive."

Luffy swallowed his food with an audible gulp. "Zoro's...what?" he asked cautiously, as if testing his hearing. Around the table, the others wore similarly puzzled expressions.

Vivi couldn't look at him. "He's alive," she said in a small voice.

Luffy exploded. He shot out of his seat and, grabbing Vivi by the wrists, began dancing her around the room. "Zoro's _alive_?" shouted the Pirate King gleefully. "That's great news! When did you find out? Are you meeting him somewhere? Why do you look so upset? Did he write to you or something? Hey, how long have you known?"

"Six -" Vivi tried, and failed, to twist out of Luffy's grasp. "Six years."

"_What_?" Luffy abrubtly stopped dancing. Letting go of her wrists - he didn't seem to notice when she stumbled and grabbed the edge of the table - he took a step back. "Six years?" His joyful look faded into puzzlement once more. "Zoro's been alive for six years?"

"Ten, Luffy," Usopp said patiently. He had his arms folded across his chest. "Zoro's been alive this whole time. Vivi's just known about it for six years."

"Six years," Luffy repeated. "That's...a really long time. Why didn't you tell me?" He cocked his head to the side, perplexed.

"Luffy -" Usopp began.

"Oh, because Zoro was being held prisoner somewhere, right?" Luffy swept on, ignoring him. "And you've only just figured out how to free him. I mean, I guess I see why he wouldn't want me to know about it. Zoro was never very good at admitting stuff like that, and -"

"No, Luffy." Vivi had to sit back down. Out of some instinct, Nojiko and Kaya both moved closer to her, and she felt better for that. "He's been with me."

Luffy didn't say anything.

Vivi licked her lips and forced herself to continue. "He washed up in Nanohana's harbor six years ago," she began. "Nobody recognized him. He looked..." she floundered for a description, "different. I happened to be in Nanohana that day. Of course I took him back with me to the palace. We gave him a bath and new clothes and made him sleep for a while. I was going to call for you, I really was! But when he woke up and I saw how he was, I just - I just couldn't."

Luffy's voice, when he spoke, was leaden. "Why not?"

"He didn't know me," said Vivi. Her hands were trembling, and she put them in her lap. "He didn't know any of us. Or rather, it was like he didn't want to know me. He'd look at me, then look _past_ me, and he never said a word. Two years, Luffy. Two years he just sat in that room, or slept. He barely ate. It was horrible."

"He would've known me."

Vivi shook her head. "He wouldn't have. I did try, you know. I showed him your picture, and newspapers, and I reminded him of your adventures. He never reacted. Not once."

"HE WOULD'VE KNOWN ME!" Luffy was in front of her before she knew it. Vivi looked up to see what she'd been dreading all this time, Luffy's face twisted with wild, grief-streaked anger and all of it directed at her.

And for some reason, this made Vivi terribly angry in turn. She clenched her fists and let her fingernails dig into the palms of her hands. "He wouldn't have!" she yelled back from her seat. "Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you, Luffy? He _didn't_ know you! All right? I know what you meant to each other! If I thought, for even a second, that you could have done something, do you think I would have kept him from you? I would have sent every ship in Arabasta to bring you to him, in chains if necessary. But I couldn't!" Kaya moved as if to touch her, but Vivi shook her off. "It was awful, not having him know me, or you, or Usopp, or anybody! And I couldn't bear the thought of what it would do, if you came and he really didn't recognize you..." Vivi stared at Luffy. "You don't know what you were like, after - after we thought Zoro was dead. You had rages, and Nami would stay up half the night with you, and nobody was able to -"

"Vivi." Usopp reached a hand across the table and clasped her arm, a warning look on his face. Vivi swallowed hard. "I wasn't going to risk doing that to you again," she said finally. "I wasn't going to lose the both of you."

Luffy sat down heavily on the floor. He didn't look at her. "How many swords did he have?" he asked dully.

"What?"

"Swords. How many did he have?"

"One," Vivi stammered. "The white one."

Luffy nodded slowly, as if putting things together in his mind. "Fine," he said. "What happened after two years?"

"He started to talk. It was almost like he was normal again. Only he didn't train, and he never laughed or lost his temper. And he didn't want to see you."

"Didn't _want_ to see me!" Luffy's head snapped back around, incredulously.

"He didn't want to see you," repeated Vivi. "He never says your name. If I talk about any of you, he ignores me or leaves the room. When he remembers things, he changes details so that you're all left out of the story. He won't ride the sea trains or read the newspapers or go near the harbors. He's sane, Luffy," she added, watching him closely. "This is something he's decided to do in complete sanity."

Luffy frowned. "If he's so sane," he growled, "why didn't you _make_ him see me?"

Vivi bit her lip. This was so difficult to explain. She'd asked herself this very question so many times, but the answer, irrational and weak though it was, was always the same. "Zoro's suffered," said Vivi at last. "I don't know what he's gone through, but it's done something to him. I know it's hurt you, all of you, but it's what he wanted." Her fists clenched again. "Zoro's had enough. If he wants something, I get it for him. If he doesn't, then I won't go against it. I'm sorry, Luffy, but I won't do anything to cause him more pain."

She didn't see, above her head, Nojiko, Usopp, and Kaya exchange knowing glances.

"So...what?" Luffy glowered at her. "Why are you telling me now? Why not just keep him for another six years?"

Vivi winced. Despite her defense, she guessed she'd deserved that. "He's gone missing." Briefly, Vivi told them about the events of the last month. Luffy didn't look any happier, but he didn't seem to want to bite her head off anymore, either. "I'm searching for him," she finished simply. "Only I knew I had to tell you now. It was wrong of me not to tell you sooner, Luffy, I know that. But I'll find him. I promise I will!"

After a long minute, during which Vivi unconciously held her breath, Luffy stood up and managed a ghost of his usual grin. "If that's the case," he said, "We'll have to set sail right away. I'll tell Pieter to chart a course for Sakura." And he hurried out of the room, moving with agitated, not-quite-happy speed.

A small silence filled the room after he'd gone. Nojiko broke it by saying, "That wasn't what you meant, was it."

"No." Vivi shook her head. She hadn't known it before, but as she'd talked, it had become clear: she had to find Zoro alone.

"I thought not. Ah well." Nojiko stood up and brushed some imaginary dust from her pants. "You know, I'm not even that surprised about Roronoa Zoro. Seems like every time I run into him, he's coming back from the dead." She winked at Vivi. "Leave Luffy to me." Then she too exited the room, Kaya following tactfully behind.

Vivi turned around. Across the table, Usopp was looking unhappy and torn. He was thinking about the wedding, Vivi guessed. And maybe about his father, who had left Usopp all those years ago to have adventures of his own. Though Usopp admired his father almost to the point of worship, Vivi supposed that that was one choice Usopp wasn't eager to copy right now. How funny it was, she mused, to have a life and relationships that tied one to a place. And how odd it was that one would have to choose a new life over an old friend. Not that Vivi blamed Usopp in the least. She had spent her whole life choosing duty over impulse, and that had been all right, because she'd loved her duty. Only now was she demonstrating that she'd learned Luffy's greatest lesson after all: follow your gut. It was an instinct that overrode the heart and the mind, a voice that just said _Go!_ Vivi had ignored that instinct without regret ten years ago. She was following it to the hilt now.

She reached out and patted the back of Usopp's hand. "I'm going alone," she assured him. "You don't have to worry."

"It's not that." Usopp squirmed uncomfortably. "It's just, well..." He coughed and changed the subject. "I always had trouble believing Zoro was dead," he said, attempting a smile through his beard. "He was always _almost_ dying, or losing so much blood that he _ought_ to've been dead. After a while I just took it for granted he'd be fine, no matter what. So when we heard..." He shook his head. "It was like that time the ship fell from the sky. Reading that fairy tale about a golden city, hearing about a floating island, and being told it was true. You believe it, but you don't _really_ believe it, not 'till you see it." He chuckled. "I'm glad this story turned out to be fake after all, even if he's gone funny in the head."

Vivi said humbly, "I'm glad you're not angry with me as well."

Usopp waved her off. "You don't have to apologize to me. After all," he winked, "I'm a liar too." They both laughed, Usopp heartily, Vivi rather more shakily. "And don't worry about Luffy," Usopp added. "He likes to pretend he's got a monopoly on all things Zoro. He kept Zoro's bandana, did you know? He uses it as a handkerchief. That guy tends to forget the rest of us cared about him too."

This made Vivi feel really terrible. She'd done the same thing, she knew. First, thinking she had a monopoly on Zoro, just because he'd washed up in _her_ country and didn't exclude _her_ from his revised memories. Then, for thinking it would only _really_ to Luffy to know whether Zoro was alive or dead. How silly!

She didn't have time to dwell on the matter, however, as Usopp stood up and motioned for Vivi to do the same. "Come on. It's getting late. Spend the night with us and we'll see you off in the morning." He led her out of the dining room and up the stairs to a spare room as gaudy as the rest of the house.

"What about Luffy?" Vivi asked anxiously, not at all sure that he hadn't set sail immediately.

"Nojiko's with him," Usopp replied confidently. "She won't let him do anything stupid. Too stupid, anyway." He waved her good-night and went back down the hall.

There was nothing for Vivi to do but sleep.

She dreamed, as usual, about him. Sometimes he was telling her to think of his life as something expendable in order to preserve her own non-expendable life. Sometimes he was warning her to be careful as he propelled her, midair, onto a clock tower. Sometimes he was sleeping. Sometimes he was watching her. And sometimes he was lying awake next to her in the dark, his arms about her tense and disquieted but unwilling to move away. They were pleasant dreams that always soured when Vivi awoke and remembered the reality and all that had changed.

This time, when she opened her eyes in the morning, she felt only a continuation of that sweet pleasantness. It was as if his absence allowed her to think of him as she liked, in complete perfection. For the first time in a long while, Vivi felt like she was doing something right.

When she went out of the house and down to the shore, Usopp and Luffy were already there with Kaya. Both of them stood about giving orders to their respective crews and looking very authoritative and important. Luffy had one hand on his hip and the other gesturing to various pirates on the _Ketchup Star_. The pirates seemed to be carrying bags of meat over their shoulders.

"Luffy?" Vivi came up behind him and touched his elbow tentatively. The Pirate King turned his head and peered down at her. "I'm going alone, you know."

"I know," Luffy replied calmly. He smiled, a real smile this time. "I'm just stocking your boat for you. You'll want lots of meat to keep your strength up." He motioned again, and his crew began descending the gangplank to the shore.

Vivi eyed the bags. She was glad Luffy wasn't angry anymore, and that he wasn't going to put up a fight, but...really. "That _much_ meat?" she protested. "I couldn't eat that much in a year!"

Luffy scratched his head. "Well," he said thoughtfully, "I guess when you find Zoro, he can have some too. Maybe you should pack some beer, in that case."

"Idiot." Usopp cuffed his one-time captain on the shoulder, which these days was the highest he could reach. "Put that in the cabin." The last was directed at one of his own men, who obligingly clambered onto the boat with a cloth sack.

"I hope that's not more meat," Vivi said. It was only half a joke.

Usopp grinned. "Nope. Just a coat, some boots, goggles, and a pair of mittens. You'll need them in the Sakura Kingdom. And this." He handed a small map and an Eternal Log Pose to her. "It can't hurt to ask Robin. She'll know all about people disappearing into thin air, I bet. She's at the university at Whiskey Peak now." He hugged Vivi hard, then turned and started back towards the house.

Kaya took his place, putting slim arms around Vivi's shoulders. "Everything will work out fine," she said, and Vivi could tell she meant it. "I know we'll see you and Zoro again soon." She kissed Vivi warmly, then turned to follow Usopp back up the shore.

Then it was just her and Luffy. Luffy hugged her too, fiercely, just as the men put the last bag in the boat. Vivi leaned her head against his chest and just rested there for a moment, thinking about how sorry she was but somehow unable to say it.

"Two weeks," Luffy whispered to her. Vivi could feel the words rumbling around in his lungs. "Find him and bring him back in two weeks, and we'll all dance at the wedding."

Vivi let go and stepped back. "Two weeks," she promised solemnly. She walked down to the water's edge and let herself be helped into the boat. Luffy untied the rope from the stake and watched as Vivi hauled it back. The pirates who'd lifted her on board now threw their backs against the stern and pushed her out to sea. Luffy raised his arm to wave.

Vivi waved back, feeling a little sad but resolute. She would have liked Luffy and Usopp's company, but her gut had told her to go alone. And after all, she had started this alone, six years ago. But she would only remain so for a little while longer. In two weeks time, Zoro would be back with them again, and they would all be together at the wedding.

Raising both arms now, Vivi waved and waved as her boat sailed into the open water, until she could no longer see Luffy's shape standing on the shore.

---------------  
**notes:** Mmmmm...so much angst! I had trouble figuring out how Luffy would react. Clearly, the Luffy of the present series wouldn't hold grudges, but I think ten years would give him at least a tiny veneer of cynicism. Also, I didn't write Nojiko and Luffy's conversation because I wanted to keep the focus on Vivi. Not to mention this installment was monstrously long already. So in case you want to know how Nojiko convinced Luffy not to go with Vivi: It's because she rocks five kinds of awesome. Anyways, next chapter - Vivi's trip to Whiskey Peak is interrupted by a pirate, a reindeer, and a little robber girl. Exciting! (And please review. Even if you hate this story. I enjoy hearing about that too.)


	7. A Little Robber Girl pt 1

**notes:** Sorry for the extremely long delay! This 'story' turned out to be very hard to write, ironically _because_ it features some of my favorite characters. It got difficult to keep the focus on Vivi, and I don't think I entirely succeeded. Anyway, Vivi gets into more crazy hijinks on the high seas. I dump more bad luck on her than she really deserves oo

**"Fourth Story: A Chef, A Reindeer, and a Little Robber Girl part 1"**

_"'I want to ride in the carriage,' said the little robber girl, and she insisted on having her way, because she was so spoiled and stubborn." - Hans Christian Andersen, "The Snow Queen"_

The funny thing was, they had seemed happy. That was what had always struck Vivi when she saw Luffy or Usopp during these last few years. They were happy. Everything about their lives were different now - they were no longer fellow dreamers bound by a common longing for the impossible. Now they had real-life responsibilities and real-life practicalities to capture most of their daily attention. And yet they took honest pleasures in it all. Now that Usopp no longer had to be as strong as somebody, as brave as somebody, as smart or good as somebody else, he had filled out to become, finally, his own person.

And Luffy - Vivi never ceased to wonder at Luffy. Still larger than life, but no longer a boy - he commanded ships upon ships, not just a tattered little Caravel, and didn't know most of his men's names. He had a navigator who was not Nami, many cooks and none of them Sanji, even more snipers who were not Usopp, doctors who were not Chopper, and musicians to spare. Refusing to name a First Mate, he still had Nojiko to keep him more or less grounded in reality. He had alliances to keep and people to placate, punishments to dole out and laws to enforce. His life no longer revolved around his old friends, just as their lives no longer revolved around him. But there was that same exhilaration, the fierce joy in living that had attracted a pirate hunter, a thief, a liar, a foul-mouthed chef, a reindeer doctor, and an assassin to him in spite of themselves.

Luffy and Usopp had learned how to be happy without Zoro.

Vivi couldn't remember what it was like, those first four years when she too had thought Zoro dead. She had been busy, yes, and surely she had laughed...

She remembered missing him.

That was all, the constant longing for him to be not dead. And then he'd shown up, broken but alive, and she'd been spared the hard lesson of making peace with loss.

Maybe that was why she felt the way she did, most of the time. Like she'd gotten old pointlessly, without having passed through the rituals of life. Because she was afraid, whispered the little part of her that bore Luffy's intense, wide-eyed stare. She thought she could win without anybody having to die. She thought she could keep everybody alive without falling apart...she thought she could keep everyone happy and still have the broken man for herself.

Perhaps it was not so surprising that her mind was wandering so through remininces and old regrets. She was heading towards Whiskey Peak, after all, the place where it had began. There Zoro had been a boy with scruffy hair and thin arms. He and his swords had enjoyed themselves among the bounty hunters, moving with fluid ease under a big golden moon. It had been the first and last time Vivi had seen him having fun.

Vivi missed him terribly.

Brooding along like this, sitting in the small cabin, Vivi forgot to check the sails and the rigging, to check the wind and the panel of dial instruments. The small clues that the Grand Line grudgingly gave - the sounds of a calm ocean contrasted with the more frantic slap of waves being ploughed through by a ship - became so much background noise. Thus she really had no one to blame but herself when the pirate ship pulled abreast of the boat and took her prisoner before she could even scream.

- - - - -

Vivi didn't recognize the Jolly Roger above the crow's nest. It was a skull turned profile-ways, with a sihouette of a heart where the jaw hinged below the ear. The entirety of the ship, in fact, was dotted here and there with hearts of varying sizes and hues. The heart-decked vessel had managed to lash the Arabastian boat alongside and hold it fast. That was all Vivi's bewildered eyes had time to see before a pirate jumped onto the boat in front of her and gripped her by the shoulders.

"I've got her, Madame Alvida!" the pirate shouted over his shoulder. "The princess ain't going anywhere!" He turned back to Vivi. "I'd keep quiet if I were you, little lady," he said pleasantly. "If you don't want to get killed, that is."

Vivi nodded mutely, caught between wanting to struggle and laugh with relief. The cultured drawl, the glint of golden hair and, most overwhelmingly, the delicious mixed scent of cologne and cigarettes and sea salt - Vivi could not even begin to guess why, but it was Sanji pinning her arms to her sides with the gentlest of fingers, and giving her warning in the form of a threat.

Vivi looked past Sanji's shoulder at the looming ship, still mystified in spite of her relief. Quite a crowd had gathered above them along the railing. Foremost among them was a tall, striking woman. She was beautiful, but it was a careful kind of beauty, as if she'd been assembled from parts rather than born. Not, of course, that it mattered in Vivi's case. A captor was a captor, artificial beauty or not, and from the triumphantly satisfied smile curving around the pirate's lips, Vivi got the feeling she should not count on getting away with just a friendly warning.

Madame Alvida's words, when she spoke, confirmed Vivi's suspicions and sent a stab of worry down her spine even with Sanji's reassuring strength at her side. "Strip the boat of the flag and anything portable," the pirate captain ordered, slicing an imperious arm through the air. Immediately, some five or six members of the crew began swinging themselves expertly down the sides of the ship. "I shall wait until after dinner," Alvida continued, "to decide whether to hold her ransom or to kill her."

"Oooh, wait!"

Alvida paused in the act of turning away, and the newly landed pirates on Vivi's boat stopped in the act of carting off everything that was not nailed down. Sanji gave Vivi a swift wink before pushing her gently around to face the direction of the cry.

Another familiar figure had made its way to the deck and was now dancing figure-eights around Alvida. Vivi's first thought was that one certainly did meet friends in strange places. Her next was that Nami was really too old to be capering about like that.

She brought herself back to the present situation as Sanji cried out, "Why, Mistress Mina, whatever is the matter?"

"Yes, what is the matter, Mina?" Alvida repeated. Her entire manner had changed. She was smiling at Nami - Mina, Vivi corrected herself - as one would a favorite and particularly spoiled grandchild. "Did you want to kill the princess yourself?"

Nami stopped capering and batted her lashes winsomely into Alvida's face. "I might!" she giggled. "But look! - the princess has got on a simply darling jacket. And I must have her mittens! Do let me have her to play with, Miss Alvida!" she said coaxingly. "I could have ever so much fun with her." As she spoke, Nami pulled a long dagger out of her belt sash and fingered it suggestively.

"Oh, well - if you _must_ have something to play with..." Alvida's voice was indulgent and fond. She turned around and snapped her fingers in Vivi and Sanji's direction. "Sandy!" she barked. "Bring the princess on deck and give her to Mina. I shall be in my quarters." Without a further word, the pirate captain turned on her heel and strode off.

Vivi was among the cargo that Alvida's pirates hauled up from the Arabastian boat. As soon as they were aboard the ship, Sanji pushed her in Nami's direction. Then he stood about, looking goggle-eyed and moony.

Nami ignored him. She put her arms around Vivi's shoulders as if in an embrace. The effect was slightly ruined by the knife Nami still clutched in one hand. "You must give me your muff," the ginger-haired woman told Vivi cheerfully as pirates swirled around them, taking Vivi's things off to some place. "And you must tell me lots of interesting stories, or I shall kill you right now!"

It was probably all play-acting, but Vivi did wish Nami wouldn't enjoy her role quite so much, and that Sanji wouldn't nod his head in agreement so vigorously. It was starting to make her feel anxious. Just as she was about to say she didn't know any interesting stories, Nami started to walk, which brought the knife perilously close to Vivi's face. Vivi was forced to stumble along or risk being impaled.

"Sandy!" Nami called over her shoulder.

"Yes, Mistress Mina?" Sanji cooed back at them.

"I should like a parfait immediately. Bring it to my cabin. Come along!" This last remark was to Vivi. "We can play in my room."

"Mistress Mina will have her parfait faster than thought, and it shall be made with all the love my body can give!" When Vivi peeked over her shoulder, she could just see Sanji prancing off towards the galley in a fit of ecstacy, while the other pirates muttered dark things about both "the curly-browed pansy" and "that stuck-up brat."

Nami ignored them all grandly and continued to half lead, half drag Vivi through a door, down some stairs, along a passage, around a corner and through another passage until they arrived at a cabin door. "Don't scream," she advised Vivi, dropping her earlier manner easily and abruptly. "There's a reindeer tied up inside."

"I - what?" Before Vivi could protest further, Nami had opened the door and pushed her through.

- - - - -

There was a reindeer tied up inside. Chopper was sitting on the bed, playing Solitaire with a pack of dog-eared cards. There was a rope around his neck and the other end was attached to a bedpost. He looked up as Vivi and Nami walked in, and blinked in astonishment.

"Are you going to rob the ship with us, Vivi?" he ventured by way of greeting.

"No." Nami plopped herself down on the bed beside Chopper, being careful not to disturb his game. "She was just being a careless ninny. Honestly, Vivi, I _am_ glad to see you, but you should have more sense than to get yourself captured right and left."

"I haven't been!" Vivi retorted indignantly. "This is my first time. Anyway, what about you? What in all the Blues are you doing here and why is Chopper tied to the bed?"

"Oh. Well." Nami waved a hand airily. "It was the only way to stop Alvida from cooking him, you know. I told her I'd make him my special pet and play with him. She's awfully fond of me, but we do have to keep him tied up for appearances."

"You didn't say 'play,'" Chopper said reproachfully. "You said 'tickle with my knife.'"

Nami replied crossly, "I don't actually tickle you with the knife, or at all, so stop complaining."

Vivi remained standing by the door as this exchange took place, a well-known feeling of bewilderment filling her head. The absurdity of it all, and the casual way it was carried out made Vivi feel exactly like being back on the _Going Merry_, and Luffy wasn't even here. If ever there was a way to distract herself from thinking lonely thoughts on the ocean, being captured and threatened by her one-time shipmates certainly did the trick.

But that still did not answer any of her questions.

The door opened, once again before Vivi could say anything, and Sanji ducked into the room, looking extremely pleased with himself. He was still wearing the faded trousers and the patched-up shirt, but somehow managed to convey the feeling that he'd just strolled out of the most expensive shop on the Grand Line. A towel was slung over one arm, and at the end of that arm his hand balanced a silver tray of not one, but three parfaits.

"Wonderful to see you again, Vivi dear," he proclaimed grandly, stooping down to kiss her cheek. Sliding the tray onto a nearby table, he swept on, "Now, don't worry your pretty head about those fellows outside. I've got everything under control."

Nami observed musingly from the bed, "We'll have to change plans, of course, if Vivi's to get away safely as well."

Sanji brushed some imaginary lint from his sleeve. "Of course," he said nonchalantly. "Just leave everything to me, my dear." He smiled meltingly at Nami.

"Do you need help, Sanji?" asked Chopper from his corner of the room. The reindeer jumped up, scattering poker cards everywhere, and undid the rope around his neck with what looked like practiced ease. "I want to do something, too!"

Sanji nodded towards his former crewmate. "You're a noble man, Doctor," he said. "And perfect for the job. But are you sure you're up to the task? It will mean going into enemy territory."

Chopper bobbed his head up and down excitedly. "I'm not afraid of anything!" he said stoutly.

"Good man." Sanji flicked some ash from his cigarette. "The kindly change forms and come with me."

"We'll leave the rest to you, then, darling," said Nami, looking amused. She blew Sanji a kiss from the bed. Sanji pretended to catch it, blew one back of his own, then turned smartly on his heel.

"Tomorrow, listen for the screaming," he said portentiously over his shoulder, and then he was out the door with Chopper in tow.

"Oh, dear." Vivi stared after them anxiously. "Will they be all right? Maybe we should call them back -"

"Don't worry about _them_," said Nami cheerfully. "Sanji's enjoying himself enormously, you know. He thinks he's an international man of mystery."

Vivi had to smile in spite of herself. "Mr. Prince," she murmured.

"Something like that," Nami agreed, laughing. She cleared a space around the scattered cards and patted the mattress. "Sit yourself down, Miss," she ordered. "And tell me just what in the world you're doing here."

Another confession. Vivi wondered, even as she moved to the space on the bed, whether it would be easier telling Nami than it had been to tell Luffy. It didn't feel like it would be. If anything, Vivi felt worse, since now she knew exactly what Nami's reaction was going to be. But it had to be done, because Vivi had let things come to this.

Slowly, Vivi recounted to Nami the events of the last six years. She told her about the mysterious snowstorm, about sending Pelu to search for Zoro, then about leaving Arabasta. She described her time at Loguetown with Smoker and Hina, how badly she'd wanted to stay there. Finally Vivi told Nami about finding Luffy and Usopp.

Nami's reaction was immediate and violent. She gripped Vivi's shoulders, with no trace of an embrace this time, and shook her like a rag doll.

"Why in all the Blues didn't you _tell_ us, you silly girl?" she shrieked in between shakes. "One word and we would have all been there - it doesn't matter if he wanted to see us or not - just to know where he was..."

"I - I -" Though she was being shaken so hard that Vivi was sure her teeth were coming loose, she finally managed to grasp Nami's arms and stop her. Her head was spinning and her thoughts felt just as scattered. Perhaps because of that, Vivi blurted out the last secret - the worst secret - before she could stop herself.

"I slept with him."

The change could not have been swifter. Nami dropped her arms and simply stared. It was a look of dismay, but mostly it was the same expression that Nojiko and Kaya had worn back at Little Garden, tender and sympathetic and intuitively understanding of every sad thing Vivi held inside of her.

It lasted only a moment, and then Nami had Vivi gathered in her arms, pulling her close with a cry of "Oh, Vivi!" Vivi sank into the warm, fragrant circle gratefully. This was the one thing she could never, ever have told Luffy. But Nami was a woman and she understood, just like Kaya and Nojiko had understood without Vivi saying anything. And now Vivi didn't have to carry the secret alone.

"We didn't mean to," she said miserably into Nami's neck. "I was only a guest, and everyone was so kind, but in Alubarna -"

Nami was making soothing noises. "Don't say anything," she said. "It all makes perfect sense now, and you've got nothing to aplogize for. Absolutely nothing."

"But it was wrong -"

"No, it wasn't."

"It was," Vivi insisted. "It was wrong to keep Zoro a secret, no matter if - no matter what. It was selfish, and stupid. If I'd just told you or Luffy, none of this would have happened -"

"Vivi." Nami's voice was very firm. "Before you say anything else, there is one thing you must know about Zoro." She paused significantly until she had Vivi's full attention. "Roronoa Zoro," the ginger-haired woman continued gravely, "is a complete idiot."

She raised a hand to ward off Vivi's protests. "It wouldn't have mattered who you told, or when, or if you paraded Zoro around all the Blues. He _still_ would have found a way to get himself lost in a snowstorm in the middle of a desert. That's just the way he is. The only thing _you've_ done wrong has been to fall in love with such an moron. Do you understand?" She gazed at Vivi intently. "Then repeat after me: My only crime thus far has been to fall in love with a moron."

"_Nami_!"

"Say it!"

"I -" Vivi did not know whether to laugh or to defend Zoro. "My - my only crime thus far has been to fall in love with a moron." She laughed helplessly, though there was the need to cry, too, underneath it.

"Don't you feel better?" Nami asked triumphantly.

"Yes," Vivi confessed. Even though it hurt, it did feel better to say it aloud, and to have a joke at Zoro's expense. She'd treated him like glass for so long, and kept her feelings to herself for even longer. Saying it like this, silly as it was, was like breaking the surface after being underwater for too long, and pulling the first breath of air into burning, starved lungs. It hurt terribly, but for that brief moment it also the most wonderful feeling in the world.

Nami broke the mood by clapping a hand on Vivi's back. "Good," she said briskly. "Then help me clean up these cards. Let's go to sleep. We have a big day tomorrow, escaping the ship and whatnot." Letting go of Vivi, she hopped off the bed and began picking poker cards that had dropped on the floor.

Vivi bent down to help her, protesting, "But you still haven't said why you're on the ship _at all_."

Nami waved her off. "Another story for another day," she said airily. "Here's a blanket. You'll have to sleep on the floor, in case someone checks in on us, but it shouldn't be too awful. Goodnight!"

She blew out the lamp, leaving the room in darkness, and there was nothing for Vivi to do but lie down and sleep.

- - - - -


	8. A Little Robber Girl pt 2

**"A Chef, A Reindeer, and a Little Robber Girl: part 2"**

Vivi was awakened the next morning by a hand shaking her shoulder.

"Get up," Nami whispered from somewhere above Vivi's head. "Here's your breakfast."

"Wha -?" Vivi sat up, blinking. She looked out the porthole and gaped. The sun was already very high over the water. "Why didn't you wake me earlier?" she exclaimed, scrambling out of her blankets. Hastily, she began to dress.

"Don't be silly." Nami had moved to the dresser and begun putting some things into a bag. Her hands were relaxed and leisurely. She added, "Everything's under control. We'll leave after lunch." She continued to fill the bag quite calmly.

"After _lunch_!" Now Vivi was completely aghast. "But it'll be too late if we wait that long! Everyone must already be up as it is!"

Nami simply went on folding clothes and wrapping up packets. Vivi wanted to shake her. For a brief, mad moment, she wondered if Nami had somehow lost her touch. _Did_ people lose their touch at this sort of thing? Maybe it had been a while since Nami had last had to escape from an angry mob.

Before Vivi could ask if this was the case, Nami pointed an imperious finger at the tray of food on the table. "Eat," she ordered.

Vivi went to the table meekly and picked up a spoon, not knowing what else to do if Nami would not be moved. Seeing her troubled expression, Nami finally left off packing and came to sit across from Vivi at the table.

"Do you remember," she began, "when we first met, how we all kept telling you to relax?"

"Yes?" Vivi looked at her friend warily from across a spoonful of oatmeal.

"Well, you still need to work on that," Nami said drily. She went on in a kinder tone, "Just trust us, Vivi. It's going to be _all right_."

Looking at Nami's calm, unperturbed face, Vivi could see even more clearly how her friend had changed during her long years at Water Seven. Ten years ago Nami would have voiced the same objections, would have demanded answers and explanations with all the lung power she possessed. This new placidity had Luffy's mark all over it, down to the way he used the mantra "It'll be _all right_" to override all logic and rational objections. And for some reason, Vivi felt herself relax.

She picked up her spoon again with a sigh. "What should I do?"

"Sit tight and be ready," Nami advised. "And if anybody walks by, look like you're still tied up." She pushed back her chair and stood up, brushing some wrinkles out of her skirt. "I have to go," she said apologetically. "Alvida will be wanting me soon. Pack up whatever you think you'll need - don't forget my things too - and I'll be back as soon as I can." Nami ripped off a mock-salute and, without waiting for a reply, went out the door, leaving Vivi alone.

There was nothing to do but what Nami had told her. Vivi finished her breakfast and put the plate and tray under the bedcovers in case someone walked by. She filled up the rest of the knapsacks, carefully wrapping the delicate glass vials of Nami's perfume in handkerchiefs before dropping them into the bag. She brushed out her hair and tried to arrange it so that it would not look as greasy and unwashed as it felt. She listened to the echoes of the lunch gong, and the pounding of eager, hungry feet above her on the deck. She wondered what was for lunch, and if Sanji had prepared any of it. Then, there was nothing left to do. So Vivi waited.

Some minutes after the second rush of shoes above her signaled the end of lunch, Nami slipped back into the room with a satisfied smile on her face. "It won't be long now," she said by way of a greeting. "We just have to listen for the screaming."

Vivi handed her one of the knapsacks. "Whose screaming?" she asked nervously.

"Sanji didn't say," Nami replied cheerfully. "Anybody's, I should guess."

"Listen, I do trust you," Vivi began. She could feel the worry creeping back into her voice, and tried to fight it. "And Nami, I'm so grateful for - for everything. But don't you think this is a rather important thing to know?" She locked eyes with her friend, emphasizing her point.

But Nami just laughed. "It is," she agreed, "but you know how Sanji gets. He's far too pleased with himself right now. You'll never be able to get any sense out -"

She was cut off by a bloodcurdling yell from somewhere above deck.

"Oh! That's our signal!" Nami grabbed Viv's hand and started dragging her towards the door.

"But," Vivi gasped, stumbling along behind, "that's Chopper!"

"I know, isn't that funny? But I expect it'll all work out in the end. Now move!" Hand in very shaky hand, the two of them began to run down the hall.

_Earlier..._

"Get under this." Sanji shoved Chopper under a wooden crate, in amongst a lot of sacks and old bits of food. "When the time comes," continued the restauranteer-merchant and temporary undercover agent, "Run out the door as fast as you can and head for the aft. Got it?"

"Head for the aft," Chopper repeated. His brow wrinkled slightly as a troubling thought latched ont his mind. "Just one thing, though," he said nervously. "How will I know when it's the right moment?"

Sanji started to stand up. "You'll just know," he reassured Chopper.

"But -" Chopper clutched at Sanji's pant leg desperately. "_How_ will I know?"

His former cook and crewmate and longtime friend sighed. "Trust me, Chopper," Sanji said softly. "You'll just know." He stepped backwards, dropped the crate over Chopper's head, and was gone.

For a few minutes Chopper sat in the dark, trying not to breathe in too much of the dank, old-food smell. It was a bit lonely, not knowing what was going on or really where everyone was, but he was touched by Sanji's confidence in him. Sanji trusted him to 'just know'! That was the kind of intuition Chopper had always associated with cool, confident people like Sanji, and Luffy, and Robin, and Zoro...

Chopper sighed. He hadn't thought about Zoro in a while. Zoro had been good at this sort of thing, of course, knowing just what to do to without being told. Although, Chopper reflected, he had been less good at knowning what _direction_ to do something in. In that respect, at least, Chopper had the advantage. He was going to trust his instincts, he decided, and run out _exactly_ at the right moment, in _exactly_ the right direction. He would do it for Zoro.

No sooner had he finished this mental dedication before the crate above him was flipped back with an explosive clatter. The little doctor leapt to his feet with a cry, barely remembering at the last second to change into his reindeer form.

"I've found him, lads!" shouted an excited, bloodthirsty, and _familiar_ voice.

Chopper gaped up at Sanji's long legs.

There was an answering roar from the other side of the galley, and a rush of boots thudding on wood as the pirate cooks began to head towards Chopper and Sanji. "So that's where the little bastard's been hiding, eh?" one of the pirates yelled.

"Aye!" Sanji roared back. "He'll go wonderful in the stew. There'll be fresh eating tonight, lads!" As he turned around, Chopper caught a glimpse of metal and saw that Sanji was brandishing what appeared to be a very large, very sharp meat cleaver...

Chopper was out from under the crate and legging it towards the door like a shot. He didn't care if it was the right moment, or the wrong moment, or any kind of moment. All he knew was that there were a dozen knife-wielding pirates bent on carving him up for stew, and a two-faced, curly-browed chef was at the head of the gang. Chopper made for the aft deck, screaming.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

- - - - -  
**notes:** The angst was too much. I had to throw in some good ol' Chopper action. Sorry this 'story' is so freaking long, but adding Sanji to the mix complicated the plot more than I'd originally thought it would. But...hooray for Sanji? In a non-dysfunctional relationship for once? Next time: 'story' concludes, Alvida returns, plot gets back on "Snow Queen" track, Vivi's luck finally takes a turn for the better.


	9. A Little Robber Girl pt 3

**notes:** In light of certain events, it's occurred to me that the general disclaimer for this fic isn't really adequate. Here is the replacement, which will be moved to the first chapter sometime soon. This fic, though not an AU, follows the narrative structure of _The Snow Queen: A Tale in Seven Stories_ by Hans Christian Andersen. I am using the Penguin Classics edition, translated by Tiina Nunnally. Many scenes in this fanfic are written to intentionally evoke corresponding scenes in _The Snow Queen_. Similarily, some characters in this fic will echo the dialogue of their corresponding characters in the Andersen. Having a familiarity with _The Snow Queen_ will hopefully add to the enjoyment of this fic. I am writing a full list of citations for scenes that correspond directly to Andersen's story. This fic will either be edited to include these notes at the end of each chapter, or they will appear as a whole at the end of the fic.

**"Fourth Story: A Chef, A Reindeer, and a Little Robber Girl part 3"**

Vivi thought she and Nami were heading for the upper deck, but instead Nami made a sudden swerve to the left, down a narrow hallway. Vivi barely managed to keep her balance. She stumbled and skidded as Nami, still gripping her hand, jerked her towards a little, dark door in the shadows.

"Stop here a minute," Nami said, and pushed open the door.

It seemed to Vivi that she had done nothing for the past two days but gape in bewilderment at everything Nami did. It was getting to be quite the bad habit. But though she tried to stop herself, Vivi could not keep her jaw from dropping open for the thousandth time since yesterday as her eyes adjusted to the dark and she saw what was in the room.

Bags. Thick, sturdy, bulging bags. And one did not spend any amount of time with Nami without quickly learning to recognize the shape of those bulges.

"You're robbing the ship!" Vivi stayed rooted to the doorway, aghast. She dimly remembered Chopper saying something about robbery the night before, but that had also been during one of her bewildered moments, and she hadn't been paying attention.

"Of course." Nami, unaffected by paralysis, had already moved into the room and was hefting up one bag after another, testing their weight. "Do you think we do this sort of thing for fun? Sanji and I do have a business to run, you know." She tossed a bag to Vivi, who caught it badly. "Do help me with these. Chopper can't go on screaming all day. How many do you think you can carry?"

"But I've already got our luggage..." Vivi replied weakly. There was no mistake about it now. The bag Nami had hurled so casually at her contained gold, and silver, and coins, and other precious, heavy things. Vivi was already staggering under the combined weight of the things from Nami's room and the soon-to-be-stolen treasure.

Nami eyed her critically. "Honestly, Vivi," she chided her, "how do you think you're going to drag Zoro back from wherever the hell he is if you can't even manage one little bag of treasure?" She humped up her shoulders; the rest of the bags were balanced on top, seemingly with no great effort. "He's hardly what I call 'light as a feather,'" she added, and started back out the door again.

Ants can carry up to fifty times their own body weight. Vivi remembered learning that somewhere. But that was ants. Nothing, _nothing_ in the natural world could explain how Nami's slim frame was able to support weights that would have crushed an ordinary person. Nor how she was able to free one hand to grab at Vivi's sleeve, and then to tug her along and resume the steady run down the length of the ship. Vivi gave up trying to make sense of the situation and concentrated instead on conserving her quickly flagging breath.

"It was so easy, you know," Nami said conversationally as they rounded the corner. "Sanji and Chopper got everything ready this morning. Everyone thought Sanji was in the kitchen, and of course nobody invites a reindeer to breakfast."

Vivi didn't have the breath to answer. She just kept her eyes fixed on the still far-away stairs at the end of the hall. It was funny how easily one got out of shape, she reflected. Ten years ago, she could have easily run twice this length, even with a sack of treasure on her back. Of course, ten years ago, Vivi had been in constant danger of losing her life and had had far more reason to run long distances quickly. When she thought about how nervous and jittery she'd been since boarding Alvida's ship, Vivi realized that she did not miss those days of ten years ago. At all.

Another burst of conversation from Nami brought Vivi out of her musings. "Head up the stairs and make for starboard," she instructed over her shoulder. "Your boat's tied up alongside. As soon as you get in, cut the rope and start rowing. Got it?" They started up the stairs.

"Yes," Vivi panted as she thudded heavily on the steps. "But what about Alvida? She's bound to try to stop us. And we won't be able to do much with all this luggage."

"Don't worry about Alvida," Nami said confidently. "She's taking a nap."

"But won't she wake up?"

Nami shook her head. They were just coming up to the door now. Both of them automatically brought a hand up to shield their eyes from the approaching sunlight. "With the amount of poppy opiate I put in her tea," Nami said cheerfully, "Alvida would probably sleep right through a Buster Call. We won't have to worry about _her_!"

The sounds of Chopper's screaming, echoed by ferocious roars from Alvida's pirates - and was that Sanji's voice that Vivi heard, louder than them all? - grew louder as Nami pushed open the door and they stumbled out onto the upper deck at last. Vivi couldn't see where all the noise was coming from. It sounded like everyone was heading towards the aft, giving Nami and Vivi a clear space to dash towards the side of the ship. But Vivi hardly paid attention to all that. She was too busy being horrified at her friend.

"You drugged her!" Vivi couldn't quite manage a shriek, but her wheeze was indignant and full of accusations.

Nami looked hurt. "Don't be silly. The bottle was right in Chopper's medicine bag. I'm practically doing her a favor."

"Drugging someone is not doing them a favor!"

Nami said crossly, "Well, the next time you need to escape from a pirate, I'll remember _not_ to drug her, and see how you like having your throat slit! Anyway, here we are." She slowed down a fraction as they neared the ship's side. Then with a deft kick of her legs, Nami swung herself over the wooden boards and down. Vivi heard her hit bottom with a clatter and rush of water.

"Come on," Nami's voice floated up to her. "The boat's right beneath you."

Vivi leaned over the side and looked. Nami was right. There were two boats bobbing alongside to Alvida's ship. One of them, obviously Nami and Sanji's own, was sleek and sturdy, and built for speed. Nami was standing in the middle of its deck, busily raising the sails and setting dial instruments. She had already cut the ropes that had tied the boat to the pirate ship, and each lapping wave was carrying her a little further away.

.Vivi didn't need any further urging. She clambered over the side, threw all the bags down onto her boat, and dropped down after them. There was a knife in one of the packs; Vivi remembered putting it in last, just in case she needed it. She rummaged quickly for it, then sawed through the ship's rope.

There was no time for rejoicing once that task was finished; after all, they were hardly safe yet. "What about Sanji and Chopper?" Vivi called across the Nami. With some effort, she tossed the bag of treasure and the last of Nami's things over to the other boat.

"Coming."

They were. Vivi could hear them once she cocked her ears in between readying the boat for sailing. The screaming had stopped though, and the noise was now a mass of confused shouting. "Starboard, Chopper, and jump!" was mixed with yells of "I'm never going on an adventure with you again!" and the first suspicious muttering among the crew. "Chopper...?" "That thing can speak?" "Say, didn't Mina just jump overboard with the princess and a whole lot of bags?"

"Chopper!" Nami shouted towards the ship as he and Sanji came into view. "Go with Vivi! Sanji, get in here quick!"

The two of them didn't even pause, instead launching straight into running leaps from the deck. Chopper landed with on all fours next to Vivi. He promptly turned back into his regular, half-and-half form and collapsed, panting, on his back.

Sanji, meanwhile, had dropped down smoothly onto the deck of his own ship, and was now waving cheekily to the pirates gathered along the ship. By now, the distance between the boats and the ship was too far for the crew to cross. They could only shake their fists, and then explode into curses as Nami held up a choice piece of treasure, grinning.

Sanji left off waving and cupped his hands to his mouth. "Are you all right, Vivi dear?" he called across the growing stretch of ocean.

Vivi managed a smile. "I'm fine now," she said. It was true, Nami and Sanji had no qualms about dragging their friends through Hell and back to suit their own whims, but it was hard to be angry when they were so obviously enjoying themselves. Instead, she busied herself with unpacking the contents of the bags and setting the boat to rights once more.

"You played the part perfectly, Doctor," Sanji was calling to Chopper. "This couldn't have happened without you."

Chopper shouted back from his place at the bottom of the boat, "I'm not talking to you!"

"Take Vivi to Whiskey Peak!" Nami shouted as Sanji took his turn at tending the sails. "Keep her safe, Chopper. And Vivi dear, I seem to have gotten your muff by mistake. But nevermind, I think you've got Sanji's gloves. They'll keep you warmer anyhow. Do take care!" There was time for one last wave before the wind blew the two boats apart.

Vivi was left kneeling over Chopper, still sprawled out on the deck. The reindeer's eyes were closed, and every once in a while he gave out a low moan. _I_ shall have to take _him_ to Whiskey Peak, more like, Vivi thought wryly. But she didn't really have the heart to say anything. As maddening and immune to reason as her friends sometimes - no, make that often - were, Vivi was glad to have met them for each part of her journey so far. It was comforting know she would continue to have company. With a bit of a sigh, Vivi stood up and turned her attention to guiding the boat towards Whiskey Peak.

- - - - -

The wind died down a little, and for a while Nami and Sanji just drifted. They sat outside the cabin so that Nami could keep alert for sudden changes in the weather, but for the most part they simply enjoyed each other's company. Sanji had one arm wrapped around her shoulders, and her head was tucked into the hollow beneath his jaw. Both of them fixed their eyes contentedly on the large pile of treasure in front of them.

Presently, Nami broke the silence and said, "Zoro's alive, you know."

Sanji's arm around her tightened, and Nami felt the sharp intake of breath filling his lungs. She moved closer to him. Zoro's death had hit all of them hard. It had been awful, the first few weeks. Needing to be strong for Luffy, then desperately seeking each other out when Luffy was asleep, to give way to their own mourning. They had gotten through, as they always got through anything, together. But there were secret sorrows too, ones that remained private and unasked after. Nami knew that Sanji was thinking about them now.

Quietly, Nami repeated what Vivi had told Luffy, keeping the princess's secret out of the story. Sanji stiffened even more, then slowly unwound, until by the end he was almost calm. He reached his free hand into a pocket and pulled out a cigarette, which he put to his lips and lit expertly.

"So old Marimo's alive, eh?" he said around a ringful of smoke.

"Yes." Nami was still working through the idea herself, now that she had a quiet moment without distraught friends to comfort or pirates to escape. It was hard to believe, as hard as it had been to believe the news of Zoro's death. Funny, that it should be so hard to believe Zoro was alive, when he'd _been_ alive all this time. Nami supposed she'd simply gotten used to...no, that was too horrible to think.

"And he's been with Vivi for the last six years?"

Sanji's continued prodding brought Nami out of her brooding. She smiled. "Yes."

"And now he's gone out of his crap mind and gotten himself lost in a snowstorm in the middle of a desert?"

"Well...yes."

"And Vivi's searching for him."

"Yes."

Sanji didn't say anything for a while after that. He smoked his cigarette and looked at the treasure. Nami waited, letting him think, with a patience learned - albeit with great difficulty - from years of Nico Robin's companionship.

With a sigh that blew the last of the smoke into the sea air, Sanji stubbed out the cigarette. He put both arms around Nami, holding her in protection, and holding onto her as an anchor.

"Eight days," Sanji said thoughtfully. "If Vivi can find him and bring him back in eight days..."

"Yes." Nami smiled again. "Then we'll all dance at the wedding."

- - - - -  
**notes:** I don't label my stories with pairings, but that's pretty much my official stance on One Piece romance. The great thing about ZoroxVivi, of course, is that it's very versatile. They can angst about it long after the crew leaves Arabasta, or they can move on (Zoro to resume his lack of romantic drive or find new partners, Vivi to rekindle her relationship with Coza), or they can do both. Everyone is happy. Or miserable, however you want to spin it. My other official stance is that everyone has a secret platonic crush on Chopper, but that doesn't enter so much into this fic. (Also, this is the third time I have put Nami and drugs/poison in the same sentence. No doubt it's all very Freudian.) Anyway, please C&C! C&C is like candy for my soul. You don't want my soul to starve, do you?


	10. Woman of Whiskey Peak, Woman of Drum

**notes:** An...update? Wha...?! Yes, it's true. I have been horribly slack but this entire story has already been mapped now and I will be damned if I let it get away. So please forgive the long gap and I hope we can still be friends.

**"The Sixth Story: The Woman of Whiskey Peak and the Woman of Drum" part 1**

The only thing Chopper said after he heard the whole story was "But why didn't Zoro want to see us?", and Vivi had only time to utter an amazed, "I don't know" before the reindeer collapsed back in a dead sleep, exhausted from the day's efforts.

Vivi tucked a blanket around the small body and turned to the dial monitors on the wall of the cabin. It was just as well that Chopper wasn't awake to ask more questions; Vivi had enough to think about. First Usopp and now Nami had told her to seek out Nico Robin at Whiskey Peak. Vivi wasn't sure how she felt about that. True, Nico Robin was Luffy's great friend and had been an invaluable part of the crew during on long-ago quest - and from very early on Vivi had learned to trust the Pirate King's judgement of character - but a feeling of unease still lingered whenever Vivi thought about the dark, cool woman. It was hard to erase those memories of Nico Robin as Miss AllSunday, assassin and second-in-command to Alabasta's worst nightmare, and even harder to hold wholly kind thoughts towards one who, in the absence of a certain wide-eyed boy, would have allowed her country to fall to ruin without regret.

But Nico Robin, whenever they chanced to meet, addressed her with courteous respect and nothing more. Vivi was more than happy to respond in kind. The slate of obligation and debt had been wiped clean and put away for good measure: Vivi had hoped that she and Nico Robin would never have need of the other's favor, and for ten years her wish had held. She was less than thrilled now to be asking the archaeologist for the biggest favor of her life.

Still, Vivi had to admit that what Nico Robin had done with Whiskey Peak was impressive, nothing short of astounding. For the last decade, Robin had toyed with the idea of rebuilding the library of Ohara, to restore some of the knowledge that was lost. The island of Whiskey Peak - now uninhabited and belonging to no government - presented itself as the most suitable candidate for building such a structure. She cleared out the sad abandoned buildings, once a base for Baroque Works assassins, and discreetly removed the final reminders of the island's last battle in which Roronoa Zoro had so distinguished himself. Luffy, Iceburg, and Usopp all sent crews to perform the actual construction. As soon as the last brick had been laid and the last coat of paint rolled onto the walls, donations of books started pouring in - from Water Seven; Jaya; Skypiea; indeed, every island who had known the Straw Hats' - and Robin's - help. She received these gifts graciously and (as far as Vivi could tell) in sincere gratefulness. Through the long months of clearing and building and finally furnishing her dream, Nico Robin did not approach Vivi for help. And Vivi, who struggled constantly to budget her erratic, resource-starved country, did not volunteer.

Word, flying fast on the power of the new seatrains, got around about the giant library at Whiskey Peak where anyone who wished was free to study. People began arriving on Whiskey Peak's hilly shores: the academics, the doubters, and those who were merely curious to see what a giant library looked like. Most went away with their curiosity satisfied, but some stayed on, and soon Nico Robin found herself with staff, then students, then scholars - some of whom turned into teachers - then finally a school. The crews were called back. Advertisements were put forth. Whiskey Peak and its spiky hills were transformed from a place of violence into an academic haven, and Robin's dream exceeded itself as the library sprouted forth the life she had thought irretrievably lost.

Vivi didn't begrudge Nico Robin her happiness - far from it. She liked the cheerful shouting of the pier hands as they helped secure her boat in the harbor. She thought the university buildings, in their charming mix of styles and shapes, were wonderfully inviting. And above all she was grateful that the island bore only the most superficial likeness to the Whiskey Peak of ten years ago. The only thing worse than remembering Nico Robin as Miss AllSunday was recalling her own turn as Miss Wednesday; even now memories of that nakedly desperate confrontation in the shanty-town's dusty streets brought spots of color to Vivi's cheeks. Those frantic commands to Carue - and that ridiculous perfume dance! What had she been thinking?

"Robin's office is in that one," Chopper announced, snapping Vivi from her reverie. Shaking her head to clear the images, Vivi followed her friend (still yawning from his long nap) through the jostling crowd toward a large, handsome red-brick building. Students poured in and out through its doors and high arches, laughing, talking, sharing bits of gossip, arguing good-naturedly about something someone had said during class. Vivi's ears drank up the snatches of conversation hungrily as she and Chopper hurried past. A student's life sounded rather fun. After many marbled corridors, several flights of stairs, and passing countless doors, Chopper stopped at one made of oak at the end of a sunlit hall on the fifth floor. Voices could be heard from the room's interior: one in the high, slightly nervous pitch of a student, and the other full of self-assured cadence. Diffidently, feeling almost as nervous as the student inside, Vivi rapped on the door.

The conversation broke off. Vivi heard Nico Robin excuse herself and then, without any further evidence of movement, the door opened.

A young boy of nineteen or twenty was perched on the edge of a chair, staring goggle-eyed at the sight of a plump, upright reindeer and a disheveled woman whose hair had seen better days. Opposite him, behind a sturdy desk piled high with books and papers, sat Nico Robin, cool and collected and betraying only the slightest hint of surprise at their arrival. The door swung shut behind them. Vivi's head craned around her shoulder before it even occurred to her to resist the temptation to look. As it was, she was just in time to catch the sight of a disembodied arm slithering back into the woodwork, directly under the knob. When she turned back, a ghost of a smile was playing about Nico Robin's lips.

"If you'll excuse us," Robin said to the nervous young man. "These are very dear friends of mine. You and I shall find another time to talk."

"Y-yes, ma'am," the boy stammered and, barely stopping to gather up his things, fairly bolted out of the room - whether from relief or awe, Vivi couldn't tell.

"Princess. Please, won't you sit?" Nico Robin gestured and Vivi turned to find a second chair being brought up to the desk, propelled by a dozen hands skittering across the floor. Chopper, she noticed, had already climbed into the chair recently occupied by the nervous student. From the way he hummed and made himself comfortable, Vivi rather got the impression he was no stranger to this sunny, spacious office. The hands pulled her own chair to a polite distance and disappeared. She sank self-consiously onto the cushion, very aware of how she must look - rumpled, unwashed, hair full of sea salt - next to Nico Robin's cool elegance. Not knowing what else to do, she busied herself with _not_ smoothing the wrinkles in her skirt.

But if Nico Robin noticed her less-than-perfect appearance, she was too polite to show it. Instead, she got - as was her habit - directly to the point.

"How may I help you, Princess? Mr. Doctor?"

"Oh, Robin, it's been horrible!"

Chopper had leapt out of his seat and was waving his hoofs wildly in the air before Vivi could even open her mouth. After a moment, she settled back in her seat. If Chopper wanted to tell the story, she didn't mind letting him - it would save her from having to repeat it for a fifth time.

But Chopper didn't want to talk about Zoro. He wanted to talk about Nami and Sanji and specifically, how he was never speaking to Sanji again. "He said I would _'just know'_! He said I was _helping_!" the reindeer wailed, still gesticulating in a frenzy of distress.

Through this tirade, Robin listened with her head cocked to one side and fingers solemnly steepled. Every now and then, at some particularly dramatic juncture, she nodded, as if Chopper's tale were the most serious affair to have passed through her office all week.

"There are still six days before the wedding," Robin said during the pause generated by Chopper catching his breath. "I'm sure it will give Mr. Cook plenty of time to think over his actions. By the way," she added almost casually, "I missed your explanation of the Princess's part in the adventure. Perhaps...?"

"Oh, didn't I get to that part?" And without further ado, Chopper proceeded to tell Vivi's tale as well.

The room was very quiet he finished. Robin sat motionless in her chair with a faraway look on her face. When she spoke, her voice was equally distant. "So Mr. Swordsman has been alive all this while."

"Yes." It came out almost as a whisper; Vivi could manage no more than that.

"And he has been lost to the desert, in a snowstorm."

It sounded ridiculous in Nico's Robin's calm voice, stinging Vivi to rebellion. "He _disappeared_ in the snowstorm," she said. "I don't know where he is now."

"But wherever he is, we need your help to find him!" Chopper interjected. "You know all about this stuff, Robin!"

"This stuff," Robin repeated, then lapsed into silence once more.

Vivi waited, miserably. It was really amazing how, even though they were now both on the same side, Nico Robin could still make her feel small and helpless. It was due to the sheer incompatibility of their natures, Vivi thought. She herself couldn't stand not knowing every detail and every solution to all possible scenarios, while Nico Robin never gave anything away. And how typical that, even though it was Vivi's news, the other woman should have the upper hand!

No, Vivi scolded herself. That was unfair. Luffy trusted her. Usopp and Nami trusted her. Chopper, even now, was looking up at Nico Robin with hopeful expectation. Vivi willed herself to place her faith in theirs.

"I would advise you to scour the desert again, Princess," said Nico Robin presently. "The keenest eye may occasionally miss. And of course, the wonderful thing about snow and sand is that they both make excellent preservers."

Whatever Vivi had been expecting, it certainly wasn't this. The shock propelled her out of her chair and halfway to her feet before she checked herself. Beside her, Chopper didn't even bother with restraint. "Oh, Robin!" he cried in dismay. "How can you say that?"

"Roronoa Zoro was - _is_ your friend," Vivi managed to add.

Nico Robin unsteepled her fingers. "Let me tell you a story of my own, Princess," she began, her deep eyes grave. "I loved Roronoa Zoro very much. It was an honor to be his companion, because his regard was so hard-won. The first time he raised his sword for me, unasked, for no other reason than to fend off an outsider - that meant more to me than he ever knew. Neither he nor I ever gave our trust lightly, yet I have tried to live the lesson these last ten years. How could this university have come into being if I did not trust? To pass on something of his spirit has made his passing...easier.

"I have grown used to Mr. Swordsman being dead," Robin continued. "That is part of life's cycle, is it not? I have become comfortable with thinking of him in memory, to cherish our brief time together precisely because it could never be repeated. If you had come here today and said you had found his body, it would be no great tragedy. It would simply be proof of what we have all known for a decade. But to hear of his living, to think that I could have returned his gift of friendship if only I'd known...that is painful news indeed, Princess." As if to emphasize her words, Robin dropped her gaze downwards as she finished speaking.

There it was: the moment Vivi had been dreading laid out in the open. It had nearly broken Vivi's heart to hear it from Luffy; from Nami it had been a chance to unburden her soul. But to hear the words from Nico Robin - who, Vivi had thought, never gave anything away - the only appropriate response was shame.

And yet...Vivi could not shake the memory of Chopper's open puzzlement as he asked "Why didn't Zoro want to see us?" And that was the real mystery, wasn't it?

"I tried to be the best friend I could to him," she said aloud, surprised in spite of herself that she really, truly believed it this time. Quiet, diminished, defeated, changed: Zoro was still a person, and Vivi would no longer bear the burden for his choices. "If he had washed up on your shore, you would have done the same."

"I know I would have," Chopper chimed in stoutly.

A smile passed briefly over Robin's face. "Perhaps you are right, Princess. It is simply remarkable how easily we mourn good news. It owes, I suppose, to some small perversity of our race. But to return to your original purpose...you require, as Mr. Doctor stated, my help." Without further ceremony, she stood and went to a large bookshelf at the back of the room. As Vivi and Chopper craned their necks to watch, Robin picked a book out of a crowd of others, seemingly at random.

Returning to where they sat, she said, "Of course stories of the Snow Queen have circulated around the Winter Islands for centuries. But I would prefer to first consider more mundane explanations. One possibility may very well be that Mr. Swordsman became separated from Mr. Rebel in the storm and, losing himself in the desert outside the city, perished thereafter. My advice still holds, Princess, to search your lands again. Then again, perhaps someone lured him out of the city and took him to another island -"

"Maybe he got to another island all by himself," said Chopper gloomily. "Zoro could be funny about stuff like that."

"There is also that possibility," Robin replied seriously. Her hands, thumbing calmly through the book all the while, finally found what they were looking for and stopped at a page toward the end of the volume. "Mr. Doctor, will you hand me parchment and quill?"

Chopper obliged, and she took the items with a nod. Vivi, hovering on the edge of her seat just like the nervous student of - oh! ages ago, it seemed, had to bite her lip to keep from asking Nico Robin what it was she'd found. She did not feel that comfortable with the archaeologist; not yet.

Robin wrote something on the parchment - clearly copying down whatever discovery lay in the book - folded the white square into fourths, and handed it to Vivi. "You have good instincts, Princess," she said. "But you have far to run still. It is over a hundred miles to Drum Island, and if the Snow Queen truly exists, she will have her house there. I will give you a few words, which you must take to the woman of Drum. She will know what to do with them, and will tell you more than I can."

"You mean Doctor Kureha!" Chopper cried, half in awe, half in sheer delight.

Robin smiled at him. "Yes, I mean Miss Doctorine. You must guide the Princess from here on, Mr. Doctor. A storm has landed on Drum Island and will not pass for some time yet. But I know you will not lead the Princess astray."

At the praise, Chopper began jumping up and down, a blush visible even through his thick fur. "Aw, hell, don't think you can sweet-talk me into doing whatever the hell you want!" he shouted, obviously pleased. "It's not making me happy at all, you know!"

It was hard to resist Chopper's infectious joy, and Vivi allowed herself to relax with very little struggle. Like all of them, Tony Tony Chopper had weathered the journey into adulthood, but through all the changes - even through that first great loss - there remained something of the innocent about him; the boy who found the world itself a wonder hovered ever near, shy and loving and a comfort to them all.

It would be good to have Chopper with her on the journey. With the last of Zoro's companions sought out, Vivi rather felt that she had served her penance. Company - especially for those hundred miles Nico Robin so casually mentioned - no longer seemed like an undeserved favor. And at least she and Nico Robin could agree on one thing: Chopper would not lead Vivi astray.

"Shall we go, Chopper?" Vivi asked, preparing to stand. She tucked the folded parchment into a pouch at her side, where it would be safe. "It's a long ways to the Sakura Kingdom."

"Oh! But -" Chopper abruptly stopped doing his mock-angry jig and looked from her to Robin. "I thought that we could, you know..."

"Won't you and Mr. Doctor stay the night, Princess?" Robin interrupted smoothly. "There is no telling when you may rest again in comfort before Mr. Swordsman is found." She looked inquiringly at Vivi.

It was tempting. Nico Robin was certainly right; Vivi had no idea what to expect in Drum. And implicit in that offer of a night's lodging were supper, and a bath, and maybe - just maybe - a hot cup of tea. Vivi surrendered.

"We'd love to stay, Nico Robin," she replied graciously - and tried to hard to ignore Chopper's audible sigh of relief.

They stayed the night at the University and enjoyed all the comforts that it included. Nico Robin treated Vivi with courteous respect and perhaps just the slightest hint of real friendliness. Cautiously, thinking that there were always lessons to be learned, Vivi responded in kind.

- - - - -  
**notes:** OMG this turned into a monster of a chapter. But I guess that's what I get for not updating for...what? Months? Anyway, citations! (Spoilers for "The Snow Queen")  
**1.** The Lapland Woman's home is barren and somewhat sad. I tried to make the University extra vibrant to contrast that.  
**2.** The reindeer tells his own story before telling Gerda's, as he thinks it's much more important. I didn't think it was farfetched for Chopper to want to complain about his recent misadventures first, either.  
**3.** Robin's line "But you have far to run still..." echoes the Lapland Woman's line. But instead of writing on fishskin, of course Robin uses something much more refined!  
**4.** The reindeer in "Snow Queen" is charged with guiding Gerda, just as Chopper is given responsibility for Vivi. And Chopper, like the reindeer, is heading back to his native lands.

I honestly love Robin; ironically, she's the character whose POV I have the weakest grasp on. So I decided to stick strictly with Vivi's POV - we get her view of Robin and nothing more, nothing less. Please let me know how it worked. Despite some developments in the manga, I made Vivi's attitude toward Robin ambivalent. I think it's one thing to _say_ you're okay with something, and another to be confronted with it. So I didn't want to imply Robin-bashing or Vivi-bashing, but I still interpret their relationship as unresolved. Also, this chapter has half-convinced me that I should have made this story Chopper-centric all along. He is way easier to write than Vivi! Until next time! (We're almost at the end!) As always, feedback is most appreciated :)


	11. Woman of Whiskey Peak, Woman of Drum pt2

**Notes**: Update?? Really??? Really really. The mystery of the Snow Queen somewhat explained. Vivi finally comes within spitting distance of her goal. Thanks to everyone who's read thus far and waited for an update and prodded me to get off my butt to continue this. I heart you.

"**The Woman of Whiskey Peak and the Woman of Drum": part 2**

On the surface of things Vivi's and Chopper's entrance into Sakura Port was not very different from the _Going Merry_'s entrance ten years ago. They were arriving without giving prior notice, during the winter of a winter island. Like before, a crowd of men had gathered to watch them curiously. However, there were some significant differences. For one thing, no one was trying to shoot them this time. The chorus of voices above them on the cliffs was friendly and full of instructions about how to tie up the boat. Vivi fended off questions as best she could, while Chopper answered welcoming hails with his usual barrage of gleeful insults.

A man pushed his way through the crowd. Dalton, ruler of the Sakura Kingdom, offered a large hand to help Vivi onto land. "Princess!" he greeted her in obvious - yet pleased - suprised. "If we'd known you were coming, we would have prepared a sled."

"No need." Vivi smiled at the reluctant king. "We're here to see Dr. Kureha about - on personal business."

"Oh?" Dalton raised an eyebrow. He looked quickly around at his curious subjects, then turned back and said in a low voice, "I won't press you, then. But come to Big Horn before you freeze. It's been a harsh winter."

Vivi could see it had been a hard winter as the party of herself, Chopper, Dalton, and a gaggle of villagers, trekked through the woods. In her memory, the pine trees had been bowed down with snow but healthy. Now, they were stripped of their needles and stood like dead brown things. Luckily, the journey to town was short. Dalton led them, his thickly lined boots crunching heavily through the snow, to his own house in the village. It had scarcely changed in the ten years since Vivi had seen it last, except that the path leading to the door was shoveled clean, and a small metal plaque in the shape of a crown had been nailed to one wall. Otherwise, there was not very much to distinguish this house from the other houses in the little town.

"It's growing late," Dalton rumbled as he lifted the latch on the door, "and I'm loath to let you travel at night. Too cold. If you and the good Doctor will honor my home for the night, I'll see you get to Dr. Kureha's first thing in the morning."

Vivi accepted the offer with not a little relief. Though it was not yet evening and the sun was still struggling gamely to pierce the heavy, snow-laden clouds, it already felt like midnight. Every breath going in froze in her nostrils and every breath going out was just as cold, as if her lungs had been frozen from the inside. Even Chopper, who was in his full reindeer form, had icicles forming in his coat. Vivi fancied she could see the blue of his nose spreading outwards across his whole face. They stepped into the house after Dalton and shivered gratefully, letting their bodies adjust to the shock of the sudden warmth.

The inside of Dalton's house, like the outside, had changed little since the last time Vivi had seen it. An energetic fire still burned in the grate. The miniature vases and the toy cannon still sat in a neat row upon the mantle. The same bed still sat in the corner, still covered by the same quilt a desperately ill Nami had lain under years ago, though the colors were a little faded now and there was some fraying around the edges. In fact, the only new addition Vivi could see was a stout desk, shoved against one wall, with files of papers piled on top of and spilling out from under one another. She had to smile. Even a small country like Sakura produced headache-inducing amounts of paperwork.

"You are going to disappoint my father, Dalton," Vivi joked. "He's laid a bet that you would have moved into the castle by now."

Dalton looked up from mixing hot chocolate in a kettle over the fire and laughed. "No, no, Princess," he said. "The villages are the heartbeat of this country, so in the village I'll stay. The Snow Queen is welcome to claim the castle as her own if she wishes. I'll not shed a tear for it." He glanced at Chopper. "With apologies to you, Doctor."

Chopper pulled the brim of his hat down in embarrassment. "Shut up, you asshole," he muttered, his voice squeaky with pleasure at Dalton's deference. "The castle was OK when Doctorine was there, but it doesn't mean anything now." He accepted a steaming mug of hot chocolate and sniffed appreciatively.

Vivi took a mug herself and they sat with the king, talking of this and that while the air outside the snug little house grew colder and colder.

- - - - -

Later, after Chopper had drifted off to sleep at the foot of the bed and the fire had died down to red embers, Vivi asked Dalton, "Is the Snow Queen real?"

"She is the winter," Dalton replied. "At this time of year, she is the realest thing on the island."

It was not an entirely satisfactory answer, but Vivi was too tired to argue. She slid into bed and pulled the quilt to her chin, determined to get answers from Kureha in the morning.

- - - - -

Vivi woke to the smell of frying bacon. She opened her eyes to find Dalton once again bent over the fire. Chopper was laying plates and silverware on the dining table. Vivi sat up, feeling foolish. "Is it very late?" she asked anxiously.

"'Morning, Princess," Dalton said without turning around. "It's an early breakfast yet. We'll not see the sun today, either, but it isn't far to Doctor Kureha's village. Dress warmly."

They left directly after breakfast. The sleigh ride across the woods was a quiet one, but soon enough they could once again see smoke curling up from chimneys in the distance. Kureha had returned to her old house in recent years, claiming that Dalton must live in it "like a real king". Only the slightly slowed gait as she came outside to meet them betrayed other, less patriotic reasons.

But if her steps had slowed, her tongue had not. "About time my no-good son came to see me!" Kureha hollered practically into Chopper's ear, and without waiting for an answer, "A king ought to live in his castle! Haven't you got lackeys for this sort of thing?" The good doctor looked perilously close to twisting Dalton's ear.

But the big man only smiled. "I would trust the Princess's safety to no one else, Doctorine," he returned. He helped Vivi off the sled, then Chopper; after touching a hand briefly to his brow, he got back aboard. "I know your time is precious. I won't waste it. But Princess, honor us again when the snows have melted, and we will talk."

Vivi smiled. "I will, Dalton. Thank you."

With a cluck of his tongue, Dalton guided the mountain rams pulling the sled to face the direction of Big Horn. Vivi barely had time to wave good-bye before Kureha took ahold of _her_ ear and dragged her, stumbling and protesting, into the house. Chopper was already inside, rubbing at an antler and making faces. Clearly, his relationship with the Doctorine had changed little with time.

"And what brings you to Drum in the dead of winter?" Kureha demanded by way of greeting. "Not a social visit, I wager."

"N-no, Doctor," Vivi stammered. Kureha's barbed tongue was a complete change from Dalton's reserved courtesy, and Vivi had to re-accustom herself to its edges. She held out Nico Robin's piece of parchment towards Kureha, almost as a shield. "I'm searching for Roronoa Zoro. Nico Robin thought he might be on this island."

Kureha snatched the paper from her, opened it, and began to read in one continuous brisk movement. "Roronoa Zoro, eh?" she said non-commitally. "I remember him. Big lad. Didn't look too bright. Isn't he dead?"

Vivi sighed and prepared to launch into the tale, but Chopper jumped up and began to tell it instead adding his own editorial comments and dramatic flourishes. "You know everything about Drum Island, Doctorine," Chopper finished with a pleading look. "You know all the secret paths and how to fly down from the castle whenever someone's sick. You know how to make people sleep when they've got a fever and how to make them well when they're close to death. Can't you give Vivi a potion to help her beat the Snow Queen? Something like -" he groped around for the words, "something like giving her the strength of a hundred men! She'd beat the Snow Queen easy then!"

"One hundred men!" Kureha snorted derisively. "A fat lot of good that will do!" She moved to the grate and threw Nico Robin's note into the fire. Vivi could not help giving a small cry of protest. "What did Nico Robin say?"

"None of your concern!" the doctor snapped back. She went to a chest, flung open the lid, and started to rummage through its contents. After a moment, she flung a fur-lined hat across the room in Vivi's direction, followed by mittens and socks thicker than Vivi's coat. "_Your_ concern," Kureha continued as she threw item after item around the room, "is to make it to the castle without dying of cold. Save your breath for the hike."

Vivi obediently picked up the hat and put it on her head. "So the Snow Queen is real?" she ventured, and received nothing but a snort in reply.

"But _Doctorine_!" Chopper wailed. "The Snow Queen could be magic! She could probably freeze us with a look, or maybe turn Zoro into an ice-zombie and attack us -"

"I am a woman of science!" Kureha roared. "Do I look like I believe in children's tales!" She stood up and thrust a finger at Vivi. "Get dressed!"

This time, Vivi did not protest. She took a pile of clothing and fled to a corner.

Meanwhile, Chopper crept over to sit by Kureha, who was now standing at the window, sucking reflectively on her pipe. "This winter's the coldest we've had in a hundred years," she said conversationally, all traces of anger brushed aside. "If the Snow Queen's here, she'll be up at the castle, making herself comfy." Kureha sighed. "I told Dalton to live in the castle. Human fire and human dirt to keep the wild out. Keep nature where's we can see it." She shook her head. "But what the winter wants with that over-muscled idiot is beyond me."

Chopper stood up on tiptoe to look at the snow swirling outside. "I still think a potion would help," he said.

"Do you now?" Kureha said dryly. "If a potion was all it took, I'd be climbing that mountain myself 'stead of trusting your thick skull with the job. You take a look at that girl." She jerked her head toward Vivi, who could not hear them and, from the faraway look on her face, wasn't listening anyway. "Got the whole world rushing to help her, just by saying 'please.' She knows what this is about."

"What is it about?" Chopper asked, but got a withering look in reply.

"She has to succeed as she is or not at all. There's no help of mine that will make a difference. Take her to the castle, Chopper, and bring her back again. And don't waste your time about it!" she added loudly as Vivi made her way back to them. She was now wearing a fur cape on top of her coat, and the thick socks, and boots, and two scarves, and the hat, and what looked like gloves under her mittens. Chopper hoped she would be warm enough.

Without further ceremony, Kureha ushered them outside. "You won't have to climb," she said, pointing to the far side of the nearly vertical face of the mountain on which the castle stood. "Not if you take _that_ path. But mind you don't lose your way in the storm." She turned to go back inside.

"Wouldn't it be quicker to take the ropeway?" Vivi protested. Luffy and Sanji had told her stories of their trek to the castle, and it was not something Vivi was remotely eager to experience herself.

"Oh, yes?" Kureha jeered. "You think the Snow Queen can be found by ropeway, do you? I suppose she has visiting hours as well? Listen, my girl." The doctor drew her lined, hook-nosed face in close to Vivi's. "The Snow Queen plays a hard game. You want to find her, you take the hard way."

"So the Snow Queen is real," Vivi whispered.

"Only like the winter is real." Kureha shrugged. "Some people give it more power than it's due. Me, I just think it's a bunch of white stuff falling out of the sky. I'll not meet the Snow Queen, whatever road I take." She went back inside the house and slammed the door.

Vivi and Chopper began walking towards the mountain.

- - - - -

The snowstorm came upon them suddenly, when they were almost to the summit of the mountain. The last thing Vivi heard was Chopper shouting at her to keep close, and the last thing she felt was the coarseness of his reindeer hair slipping out of her desperate grasp. In a second, she was alone and lost. "Chopper?" she called, and coughed. When she opened her mouth, freezing air and snow rushed in and threatened to overwhelm her lungs. She gave up trying to locate Chopper and concentrated instead on keeping her vision clear and her steps straight. If she just kept going in the same direction...But there was no such thing as direction in the wall of fog and snow surrounding her. The wind buffeted her first this way, then that, and the leaden clouds seemed to be pulled down low on the horizon so that they enclosed her on all sides. If Vivi moved, she risked going the wrong way - or worse, falling off the side of the mountain. If she stayed still, she would die of cold.

_I can't die!_ she thought. Tears formed in her eyes and just as quickly froze. _I've come so far! It's not_ fair _to die here!_ She didn't know what to do. She couldn't even think. _What would Luffy do? What would Nami do? Oh, for heaven's sake, what would Zoro do?_

They would fight, of course. They would fight until they won or died. But Vivi wasn't like them. She'd never had a dream bigger than her whole soul. She couldn't control the elements. She'd never even had the single-minded drive that had propelled Zoro to battle, to blood, to death. Vivi had always depended on the support of her friends; without them, she didn't know how she could go on.

It didn't matter anymore. The Snow Queen was just a children's tale, another name for the kind of winter that could grip a country like a cruel sovereign. Nico Robin was right: Zoro was probably dead, his bones buried beneath the Alabasta sands. Good for him. He'd been as good as dead these last ten years, anyway. What had he done for her, ghosting silently through the palace, brooding, making her worry, making her guess at some secret he never shared? Better to give up this fool chase. Better to go back to Alubarna, back to Coza; set his mind at ease. Ask her father to announce the engagement and put all this nonsense behind her. Zoro was dead.

A memory stirred. Of looking at a battered Nami while a clock ticked overhead. Then shooting suddenly into the air, then drawing her head low as Chopper jumped. Then the slender firmness of Sanji's leg, a blur of blond hair and cigarette smoke, then the air. Then Zoro stepping off the ledge to meet them, of him telling her to be careful, being kind. Then the clatter of hooves on steel, and the air. Then she was alone, and there was no more time. She remembered - not thoughts; she had traveled to a place beyond thoughts where there was only herself and a lit fuse that must be unlit. The impossible distance between her and the clock tower was only air, only space to be crossed. The enemies blocking her way were only bone and flesh, noisy objects obstructing her vision. There was nothing real except the length of burning rope. The whole of her body was moving to stop it. It didn't matter if she fell. It didn't matter if she died. The length of burning rope mattered.

One step, then another. A sob. _It doesn't matter if I die here. It doesn't matter if he's dead. Just let me find him._

Quietly, like the drawing back of a curtain, the snow parted and the wind faded away. When Vivi raised her eyes, she saw Chopper, in full reindeer form, standing by a bush covered by red berries, their color glowing even more brightly against the backdrop of white. They were both on the summit of the mountain. Chopper trotted over to her and snuffed anxiously at her until she put her arms around his neck in reassurance. They were standing in front of the castle. In shape and size, it was the same castle that had always loomed over the island, but there could be no doubt: it belonged to the Snow Queen now.

- - - - - tbc

**notes**: (spoilers for Andersen's "The Snow Queen" 1) Like the Finn woman, Kureha throws away the note without telling its contents.

2) Chopper pleads with Kureha on Vivi's behalf like the reindeer does for Gerda. Instead of 'strong as twelve men', I changed it to 'one hundred', since most characters in One Piece are already as strong or stronger than twelve men!

3) There's not a lot of magic in One Piece, so I tried to make the Snow Queen ambiguous and just as easily explained by natural phenomena. It's actually really challenging to follow the fairy tale without losing the spirit of One Piece. It's bad enough that so much has happened in the canon since I started writing this!

Oh my goodness! At the castle at last! But what has Zoro been doing all this time, I wonder? Next time, we shall find out. Thanks for reading, please comment and critique!


	12. What Happened in the Castle pt 1

"**The Seventh Story: What Happened in the Castle and What Came of It" part 1 **

The walls of the castle were covered over with ice, great sheets of dull green ice that made the castle seem more like a cavern than a man-made thing. Sometimes the sun managed to peer through the open front door and turn the halls into a dazzling maze of reflected light, but more often than not it was the wind that came rushing through the halls instead, bringing piles of snow with it.

The castle was both familiar and alien to Zoro. He was quite sure he had never been inside it before. But he knew each room as soon as he entered. _This_ room had a bed, and that was right; _this_ room contained a laboratory of sorts, and that was right, too. When Zoro walked down the halls, trying to find his way back into one room or another, he thought there should be the sound of running feet. In one room at the top of a tower he found a cannon and stayed there for a while, listening for birdsong.

None came, just like no feet other than his ever sounded in the halls. The castle of ice and snow was quite empty. There was no one to work at the laboratory table, no one to lie in the bed. Zoro did not know why he expected to find other people walking the corridors of ice and snow. It was as if he had trespassed into someone else's story, one told to him, one that had happened long ago.

But most of the time Zoro did not wander the castle. There was a place in the Great Hall where there was a sort of pool. The surface of the pool was cracked into a thousand shards of ice, but to Zoro each shard seemed so beautiful that most of the time he just sat in the middle of the frozen lake, arranging and rearranging the pieces into complex shapes. There was one shape Zoro wanted to make more than all the others, but he could never seem to find exactly the right pieces. He wanted to make this shape for Kuina. She often sat with him in the middle of the pool, keeping him company, wrapping her arms around his shoulders to keep him warm. Zoro did not notice that where her fingers touched, his skin turned blue, almost black with cold. He just kept rearranging the ice patterns.

"Just this one thing," Kuina urged him. "Spell the word 'eternity' for me." She was always tall during these times; her eyes always ringed by long black lashes and her lips full and red like a woman's; Zoro thought she would have been this beautiful, her voice this deep and coaxing, had she lived to be nineteen and twenty-nine with him. When Kuina was tall like this, the castle seemed to grow quieter, the snows heavier, the marks on Zoro's arms blacker and slower to fade.

But Kuina did not always ask him to spell 'eternity'. Sometimes she whispered, "Spell 'freedom,' Zoro," and her voice was that of a child's, and Zoro would turn his head to find her as long-limbed and barefoot as the day he met her, as the day she died. "You must, Zoro. I don't want to stay here any longer."

Zoro arranged the pieces to spell a good many words, but he could never seem to put together either 'eternity' or 'freedom.' So he sat in the middle of the frozen pool until he felt like his head would burst, and then he would go for a walk around the empty castle, listening for footsteps.

One day someone sat down on the frozen pool beside him who was not Kuina. She was a woman but she was not Kuina. She was familiar but alien to him. He felt like he should know those dark eyes but he did not. He felt like he should respond when she called out his name but he did not. She felt like a part of that other story, the one that no longer seemed quite real.

Zoro looked back down at the ice.

And – suddenly – there was pain. Zoro cried out and did not recognize the hoarse sound coming out of his throat. Something liquid and warm was running down his right arm, the first warm thing he had felt since coming to the castle with Kuina. Zoro lifted it to see. Blood, bright red and steaming in the frigid air, was pouring forth from a gash just below the elbow running down to the wrist; Zoro hardly recognized it, could hardly connect the pain to the blood to something belonging to his own body. There was a blade. A naked blade with a smear of blood, already frozen over. The blade was being held barely aloft by the woman who was not Kuina. She looked frightened, and tired, and angry. Zoro did not know why.

Then, beside him, Kuina laughed loudly, making Zoro forget all about the woman. "You did it, Zoro!" Kuina cried. "You spelled it!"

"I did?" Zoro looked down at his ice puzzle. It didn't look like either 'freedom' or 'eternity' to him. The pieces lay where he had left them before the woman came, except now they were stained red with his blood.

"You did it," Kuina repeated. "You kept our promise. One of us beat the other. One of us became the best swordsman in the world."

"Who?"

Kuina grinned at him. "One of us."

And Zoro was eleven years old again, short and skinny, his brows already permanently furrowed into an anxious scowl, reaching up with a grubby hand to extract the promise which he thought would keep both him and Kuina alive forever and ever: one of them would be the best. The last fight would be the only one that mattered. Now Zoro was one day older and Kuina was dead, her time preserved forever at twelve years while Zoro had to go on alone; and though everyone around him had grief carved into their spirits his was the only world that seemed to be breaking; to keep it whole he asked for the only thing left of her - her sword, which would never completely be his sword but always a substitute, a talisman. Cheated of facing her, Zoro in his shattered-world haze vowed to face the final battle with her and so forgot as the years passed and his footsteps wandered ever further from the moonlit hillside that that was not the original promise.

Now one of them had won. Now there were no more rivals left to beat. Zoro moved his head just quickly enough to see Kuina step backwards onto the blood-stained ice - and then she was gone, and memories began to flood the void, all the memories of the last ten years which Zoro had worked so carefully to keep at bay; like a dam breaking, he let them pour forth in a howling wail that seemed to pierce the ice; the clouds; the air; the sun; until the heavens themselves shook with the force of Roronoa Zoro's grief.

- - - - -

"Zoro! Zoro, please don't _cry_!" Vivi took ahold of Zoro's shoulders and shook him as hard as she dared - which was not very hard - but it made no difference. Eventually Vivi gave up and turned her mind to other matters.

Now that Zoro was here, now that she knew he was solid bone and flesh and alive, Vivi's mind scrambled to gloss over this whole bizarre adventure and anchor it down in the real world of logic and practical explanations. Take, for example, the castle. Everything was covered in layers and layers of ice and snow, but it was easy enough to see why. When she lived there, Dr. Kureha had kept the front door open always, and she had not bothered to shut it when she moved house. Of course the elements rushed in to lay claim to the place.

She had found Zoro just inside the castle, in the Great Hall. Part of the ceiling had fallen in, no doubt from the weight of the snow, and years of precipitation had frozen over into a kind of pond in the middle of the hall. Zoro was kneeling down in the center of the pool, moving pieces of broken ice around. Vivi had rushed forward with a cry, hardly able to believe he was really there. But he was, and really it was as if he was the most solid thing in the castle. His hair was longer, true, but it wasn't very much longer, and he was thinner. But he did not look as if he had been in this castle of ice and snow for three weeks. Blue and black whiplashes from the cold covered his bare arms, but he did not look frostbitten; he was not so thin that he looked parched or famished. He could not have been in the castle for more than a few days. During the pinnacle of his strength Zoro had possessed nearly inhuman endurance, but even he was subject to basic survival needs.

Someone, at some point, had thrown a white fur cloak around Zoro's shoulders. Like everything around it, it was caked with snow and ice, but Zoro moved under it as if indifferent to the cloak's presence or usefulness. The sight of the cloak made Vivi feel better, somehow. Zoro had met someone during his travels who had been kind to him. He had not been whisked away. It was probably just as Chopper and Nico Robin and Dr. Kureha had said: Zoro had gotten lost in the snowstorm, wandered the Grand Line and, propelled by his infamous lack of directional sense, ended up at the castle, not even very many days before Vivi herself. He had been talking about it back at Alubarna Palace, just before he disappeared. Perhaps that had something to do with it.

What worried Vivi the most was the way Zoro went on shuffling ice around like someone possessed, neither looking up when she called his name nor reacting when she knelt down in front of him and shook him by the shoulder. It was as if she wasn't even there. Vivi's first thought was that there was something wrong with him, that his selective memory of the last six years had finally decided to delete itself for good. Her second thought was that maybe someone else was in the castle. Perhaps the person who had given Zoro the fur coat, and perhaps this person was really an enemy. She looked around nervously, but the shadowed hallways beyond the courtyard seemed quite empty. It was at this point that Vivi's worry passed over into annoyance. All right, so Zoro had lost his wits for good. So he'd been tromping around the Grand Line with who knows who. Even people under those conditions looked up when a stranger called their name! Vivi wasn't asking for much: just some acknowledgment of her trials, some sign that it had all been worth it.

The important thing was to get his attention. She was sick of kind and patient, and anyway, it was freezing. Zoro did not respond to her cajoling, nor to the light slap to the cheek. In her bewilderment, Vivi laid her hands on the only thing sure to get Zoro's attention, the only thing that remained of the old days: she reached out and grasped the hilt of the curious white sword called Wadou with both hands, and pulled.

The sword was heavy, as she'd expected, but not so heavy that after the initial tug Vivi didn't go tumbling back on her haunches, overbalanced, while the blade came slithering out of the sheaf with an alarming, metallic _shi-ng _and, even against Vivi's cry of consternation, drew a crisp line of red from Zoro's elbow to his wrist.

Zoro gave a cry of surprise and pain, the sound coming out hoarse and guttural from his throat as if he had not spoken for many days. He looked down at his arm as if he'd never seen blood before, then back up at Vivi as if he might almost know her, his brow furrowed in an all too familiar V over his eyes; despite her worry and guilt for having caused him injury Vivi was so relieved to see him looking even a ghost of his old self that she dropped the sword and scrambled forward to catch his hands in hers.

"Oh, Zoro!" she said happily. "You looked up after all!"

Zoro looked even more confused. "I did?"

"Yes, you did." Vivi gave him a shake, then stopped as the motion only splattered more drops of blood across the ice. "Now we _must_ go before that person comes back."

"Who?"

"Well – I – I don't know," said Vivi, taken aback. "Someone must have given you this cloak, Zoro," and raised a hand to pluck at the stiff, frozen fur.

And then stopped, as if her hand were as frozen as the cloak. For one moment Vivi saw her: almost solid, the thick green ice slabs glowing opaquely through the foggy composition of her body; tall and sturdy and long-limbed, the ghost-child with the big, big eyes grinned with such heartbreaking, cocksure sweetness that it seemed to Vivi it was for this little girl's sake that Zoro had walked into the snowstorm in the first place.

Just for one moment – between one blink and the next she was gone, leaving Vivi to rub her eyes and tell herself uneasily that she was seeing things, that it was a trick of the light. Then Zoro threw back his head and began to sob, and Vivi forgot all about the little girl.

- - - - -

With more prodding and cajoling, Zoro eventually stopped his tears and even began to help Vivi with gathering the tattered cloak more tightly around his shoulders. Vivi kept up a constant chatter as she worked at stripping lengths of her own coat to bind Zoro's arm; wipe off the sword and replace it in its scabbard; rubbing his legs to get some feeling back into those frigid limbs.

"It's not as cold as it was, is it?" she said with forced casualness. "Zoro, do move your feet so I can see if you've got frostbite."

"Vivi."

Her body stiffened, though she tried to pretend otherwise. "Yes, Zoro."

"What are you doing here?"

_That_ earned him a full-force punch to the head. "Well, honestly!" Vivi said, thoroughly exasperated. "That's a fine thing to say to someone who's been searching for you for the past three weeks! Don't you think a better question would be what _you're_ doing here?"

Zoro looked up and around at the crumbling castle of ice. "All right," he said cautiously. "What _am_ I doing here?"

Vivi sighed. Standing up, she held out a hand, which Zoro took to haul himself to his feet. "We'll talk about it later," she said tiredly. "Let's just get out of here, Mr. Bushido."

Without saying anything more, the princess and the swordsman walked out of the castle.

- - - - -

Chopper was waiting for them just outside the door. As Vivi and Zoro emerged back out into the world, blinking against the harsh glare of the sudden sun, Chopper dashed towards them at a gallop, only to transform into his usual half-and-half body and launch himself directly at Zoro, latching firmly onto the swordsman's head.

"Oh, Zoro!" the reindeer wailed. "How _could_ you!"

"Oi, Chopper!" Zoro flapped his hands helplessly, unsure how to respond to the bundle of fur clinging to his head and pounding him around the shoulders with small fists. "Get off!"

"Where have you _been_?" Chopper went on aggrievedly, ignoring his pleas and clinging even tighter.

"I could tell you if you – oof – get off of me," Zoro said in a tone that was almost like his old growl, though his attempts to remove Chopper from his person seemed to Vivi to be half-hearted at best, though whether that was because he was happy to see his former crewmate or his supply of oxygen was being cut off, it wasn't entirely clear.

There was barely time for Vivi to reflect on how quickly it had taken Zoro to resemble something of his former self; Zoro had just managed to gasp out something about needing to breathe; and Chopper was taking a fifth or sixth swipe at Zoro's head when there was a horrible squeal of rusty metal and the unwieldy bulk of Drum Island's ropeway car settled at the top of the mountain in a ponderous cloud of snow.

The car door slammed open. Kureha stalked out, hardly taking notice of the knee-high accumulation, while Dalton and half a dozen curious townspeople crowded near the ropeway station, wanting to horn to say they played a part in the Alabastan princess's strange adventures, yet not liking to get too close while the Doctorine was on her warpath. Vivi, Chopper, and Zoro watched Kureha approach, all of them disoriented by the boisterous, chattering crowd after the silence of the castle.

Kureha stopped just in front of Vivi and poked at her with a long, thin finger. "Found him, did you?" the doctor bellowed triumphantly, as if she had been the one climbing mountains all day. "Well done, my girl!"

"Y-yes," Vivi stammered, still trying to readjust her mind after the silence of the ice castle. "Doctor," she began, "the Snow Queen was real, then? Is this what it means?"

Kureha snorted as Zoro looked back and forth between them in confusion. "Means?" she repeated, and jabbed at Vivi again. "It _means_, you foolish girl, that you climbed a mountain and found what you were looking for at the top of it. Speaking of which-" Kureha left off jabbing Vivi and rounded on Zoro, who accordingly took a wary step back.

"Oh, no you don't, boy," the doctor cackled. "You may well be too dense to catch a cold, if your shenanigans these past ten years are any judge, but I'll not let it be said that Doctor Kureha allowed a patient to leave her island without a proper examination." She hit Zoro with an audible smack on the forearm, causing him to wince as the force of the blow jarred his not-quite-healed wound. "Now get in that car."

"If I'd known this was waiting, I'd have stayed in that castle," Vivi heard Zoro mutter to Chopper as he stumped off obediently. The reindeer raised a hoof to cover a guilty giggle.

Dalton met them at the door. "It's good to see you alive, lad," he said to Zoro kindly.

Vivi could almost feel it, the tensing of Zoro's shoulders, the slight sag in his posture; it was Alubarna Palace all over again, and Vivi feared, even as her heart tightened back into the frightened, worried knot of the last six years, that Zoro would never shake the deadened calm, so like the snow; she was afraid she had only been chasing a ghost across the Grand Line.

Chopper, now sitting piggyback, was stroking Zoro's hair with a protective tenderness Vivi recognized as her own, and it broke her heart that she had not been able to present the swordsman whole and healed to the reindeer who had followed her so faithfully on this journey.

When Zoro spoke, it was in the quiet tone of one telling secrets. "I started to carry you up the mountain."

"Yes, lad." Dalton's voice was gentle.

"But the villagers told us to wait while they prepared a lift. They said it would be quicker that way."

"Aye." Behind him, the townspeople murmured assent. Yes, many of them had been part of that story.

"And at the top of the mountain," Vivi said dully, taking up her part of the narrative, "we met--"

"Kureha." Zoro furrowed his brow. "And Luffy. And Nami, and Sanji." He reached up with one hand to catch Chopper's hand. "And we took the sleigh down. All of us, and Chopper pulled it."

Vivi came up to them, scrubbing hard at her eyes with one hand. Without looking at her, Zoro took up her other one and squeezed, the pressure reminiscent of the strength he once possessed. "I always knew," he began hesitantly. "But I couldn't say it, not until--"

Vivi shook her head to stop him, afraid that if she spoke she really would break down in tears. Dalton stretched out two powerful arms and clapped each of them around the shoulders. "Enough," said the king. "There will be plenty of time for stories later. Let us return to the village and the comforts of a warm hearth. The Snow Queen is loosing her grip on our little country, but it's a foolish man who ignores her complete." So saying, he drew them with the townspeople into the car. Kureha, thoughtful and silent for once, entered last and closed the door against the still-swirling snow, and together they all went down the mountain.

- - tbc - - -

**notes: (SPOILERS for Andersen's "The Snow Queen") 1.** I tried to echo the emptiness and silence of the Snow Queen's palace as much as possible. At the same time, Zoro probably had Luffy, Sanji, and Nami's adventures in Drum Castle told to him, so I tried to work in a feeling of expectation. The frozen pool, of course, is straight out of the story.

**2.** In the original, the Snow Queen asks Kay to spell one word, but I changed it to two here because I thought otherwise Kuina would be too creepy.

**3.** Gerda fusses over Kay to make him 'human' again, and of course fussing comes easily to Vivi as well. She doesn't kiss him, though – as much as this is a love story, it's not a "kissing story", and blood seems to fit Zoro so much better, yeah?

**4.** For this chapter I thought a lot about mirrors, illusions and the circular nature of this story. Conversations mimic each other but it's not certain which ones are 'real', events echo each other but the players and circumstances are just a little different. So yes, I was definitely going back to Chapter 2, when Vivi and Zoro talked about the first time they were at Drum, and here they are on the mountain again, and repeating that conversation again, while acting out their own story…

Thank you so much if you made it to the end; this was a really long chapter D: There's only one more, I swear! As always, feedback is greatly appreciated :)


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